Local teacher approaches board seeking on-the-job training for area students

 

The Nicholasville City Commission met Monday night and discussed a proposition concerning Jessamine Career and Technology Center students working internships in city departments.

Will Hall, who teaches a pre-law pathway course at JCTC, addressed the commission and said the initiative was designed to get students working in the community to achieve college and career readiness.

“JCTC and all of Jessamine County Schools have a ‘real world experience’ initiative taking place,” Hall said. “We want students to get hands-on experience. I contacted the city attorney to begin an internship with her office. Instead of just placing an intern at her office, it also seemed like a great opportunity to get students involved on a broader scale across the city. JCTC offers career classes in almost every discipline, the city has careers in many areas, why not come together to train our community?”

Hall first addressed the commission asking for its blessing in placing an intern in the city attorney’s office. He then asked the commission to think of other departments that may want and/or need an intern.

“JCTC has interns currently taking place in the current and private sector to give students real-world experience to supplement classroom training,” Hall said. “Much of the Nicholasville city government does not have an intern currently placed at their office. This should be one of the first places we put students because we should be training students to work locally and build our cities. The purpose is real-world experience that is good for our students and our community.”

Hall said only so much training can actually take place in the classroom. Students, said, can learn 10-fold from on-the-job experiences, which Hall feels brings lessons to life. Those experiences can help to develop skills which lead to employability within the community, he said.

“We’ve rediscussed this recently and I think there is a lot of interest at the table for a program like this,” Mayor Peter Sutherland said at Monday’s meeting. “I think we are going to do some checking on liability issues as far as we are concerned.”

Hall provided Sutherland and the commissioners a list of pathways along with a description of each with hopes they will find more ways to employ students as interns in local city departments.

Leaving the meeting, Hall said he felt the mayor and commissioners were interested in almost every pathway he presented.

“I am happy for any businesses to reach out to me or someone else at JCTC if they would like to offer students an internship,” Hall said. “I can provide more information to them. The internships are unpaid and occur during the school day for the most part.”

For more information contact Will Hall at Will.hall@jessamine.kyschools.us.