Connecting education and the economy

SANDPOINT — Students had the day off Friday, giving Sandpoint High School teachers the opportunity to gain insight on some of the major businesses in the area.

The Community Connections field trip was designed to allow SHS teachers to learn about the current economic trend among businesses, with the goal of creating a relevant curriculum for the students. About 60 teachers, in two groups, visited four of the largest and fastest growing businesses in the area, including Quest Aircraft, Kochava, Litehouse and Bonner General Health.

Marcia Wilson, executive director of Panhandle Alliance for Education, said Community Connections was designed for the teachers to learn about the local industry, but the skills required by major businesses in the Sandpoint area would be relevant in cities around the country. 

"We are, of course, hoping we will get kids who want to come back here," Wilson said. "But there is a lot of opportunities everywhere, it's just getting dialed in to what's needed."

Geraldine Lewis, a trustee of the Lake Pend Oreille School District, said the opportunity for local educators to learn about local industry was "exciting."

"It helps break down those character boxes that we put on students and it breaks down a little bit of the stereotypes of what we think is successful or not successful," she said. "It shows us the real wide range of possibilities that are out there for kids."

One group of teachers toured Kochava as their first stop of the day, hosted by Jeremy Grimm, communications director for Kochava. He explained what Kochava does and how it provides advertisers with information to target the wants and needs of online users. Kochava is headquartered in Sandpoint, but also has offices in China, South Korea, London and Singapore.

"We are a conduit to the world," Grimm said. "We have no Idaho clients, so we are bringing millions of dollars per year from around the world into this community, which is amazing. Right here in Sandpoint, we have leading technologists, leading computer engineers managing and working with the biggest brands in the world on global advertising campaigns and global engagement."

Grimm said not only have they hired students right out of North Idaho College, but right out of Sandpoint High School. Bruce Bales, a 2015 SHS graduate, works at Kochava and said it is exciting to be doing his childhood hobby as a career.

SHS instructors each took what they could from the experience, all agreeing it was a "great opportunity to learn about the local economy. Alex Gray, department chair for the SHS Career-Technical Education program and information systems technology instructor, said one thing he learned from businesses which deal in overseas interaction, like Kochava, is the importance of foreign language for students.

"I think that is a huge barrier, especially for people in our area, to go out into the world," Gray said.

Economics and history instructor Damien Gooding said the tour was an opportunity to understand the skills that students need from an economic standpoint — understanding the local economy, how it functions and also learning about business opportunities for students in the community.

Will Love, SHS instructor in charge of the journalism program, said the tour validated some of the skills he and other instructors at SHS are already teaching, such as focusing on online operations with website analysis and social media.

"This is going to help us out in our dealings with the students, but more importantly it's opening the eyes of the teachers to what's happening in our county and what the skills are that we need to teach the kids," Love said.

At Kochava, for example, they learned that public speaking is very important because the employees often communicate with some of the world's leading companies, such as Apple, Disney and ESPN. Because a lot of communication is also done by email, grammar is important as well.

At Litehouse, executive vice president and CFO Kelly Prior, along with vice president of human resources Lesa Niemela, had a list of qualities and skills they look for in an employee. The list is divided into four sections that include soft skills, technical skill, team skills and competencies. One technical skill that is often required today, along with basic computer skills of Microsoft Word and Excel is the ability to navigate social media. Litehouse employers also require knowledge of Skype. Some of the basic, not-so-technical skills employers look for are decision making skills, leadership skills and critical thinking.

Niemela not only described what Litehouse looks for in employees, but what the new generation of employees look for in employers.

"In the workforce, if you don't evolve and you don't change, you don't become exciting and fresh to your worker, you're going to be obsolete — you have to compete," Niemela said.

She said some of the things the newest generation of employees look for, and some employers are offering, are unlimited vacation time, flex scheduling and the ability to work remotely.

Opportunities at Litehouse often start in the operations and manufacturing side, and many employees move up the ladder internally to the corporate side. Niemela said a lot of the current employees were hired locally, although some, such as food scientists, are generally imported from places like Spokane. There are also opportunities for internships, but Niemela said they hope to promote the internship program more, especially for high school students.

Nayla Morton, SHS individual occupational training instructor, said her students often job shadow at places like Kochava. Touring the businesses where her students could have an opportunity for job shadowing is helpful, she said, because when she can tell them more about the business and what is done there. She said the job shadow program is moving toward internships, which would allow students to spend a significant amount of time learning skills and "hopefully keep some students in the area workforce."

Community Connections is supported by a grant through Panhandle Alliance for Education. The grant was written by SHS counselor Jeralyn Mire, SHS instructor Malia Meschko and other collaborators. Mire said the grant for $2,400 was originally written for 25-30 teachers, but the program was something that interested all the teachers. Mire said teachers from other schools are interested as well, so they may get involved in the future as the program grows.

Wendy Dunn, chairman of the PAFE grant committee, went along on the tour to "see the grant in action."

"This was one of my favorite grants when we reviewed the grants last spring, so now it's just really great to see it come to life," Dunn said, adding that bringing the community and educators together to benefit the students is "exactly what PAFE is looking for."

"So it's just very exciting," Dunn said.

Bridgette Bradshaw-Fleer is the manager of the Idaho Department of Labor office in Sandpoint and was also along for the tour. She works closely with Mire on the College and Careers group that meets monthly throughout the school year. She said the needs of businesses, from what she hears, is to see youth emerge from school with certain skill sets.

"It's really good for the teachers to hear directly from the major employers in our area about what kind of skill sets are needed to be successful in the local workforce," Bradshaw-Fleer said.

"All of our employers would like to be able to keep and employ our local workforce above others."