February 14, 2022

Newton’s Road Launches The Career Investigator For Northwest Michigan Versions 2.0 on Valentines Day

CIP 2.0
Spreading STEM Love and Increasing Career Connection for Local Youth and Employers

(TRAVERSE CITY, MI ) Valentines Day means many things to different people. It often means building connections and celebrating love. For Newton’s Road, this year, Valentine's Day means a chance to make connections in new ways and spread the love of STEM to the area with the launch of the Career Investigator 2.0.

The Newton's Road Career Investigator for Northwest Michigan was created to help young people aged 14-20 easily explore regional STEM careers, the learning pathways to prepare for them, and the local employers that could hire them–especially across our rural region. Our Career Investigator also aligns with our regional and State of Michigan economic development goal to develop a 21st-century workforce prepared for success with a post-secondary credential. The highly engaging, award-winning experience was created with students, their mentors and businesses from the beginning. Version 2.0 adds unique new personalization features, updated content, and backend improvements to more easily add and sustain career content. 

These new features, funded by a Rotary Charities Assets for Thriving Communities grant and several matching contributors, including NMC, Munson Healthcare, Hagerty, Promethient, and Boride Abrasives, include:

  • A unique career shopping experience for students, including advanced search filters, adding careers to their Career Cart, and comparing careers side-by-side.
  • Students can easily save their favorite careers by bookmarking, emailing or downloading them.
  • Students can search which employers support internships, apprenticeships, and other hands-on experiences to test-drive careers and connect directly from the platform.
  • Employers can start their connected Employer Profile for approval via our joint Employer Survey with Northwest Michigan Works!

The TC Central Tech Girls club has been sharing the Career Investigator with their peers in the Sci-Ma-Tech program. Lauren May of the Tech Girls states: "The Career Investigator became really useful to me when they added the Water, Air, and Environment category. Since I know that I want to go into this career field, exploring possible STEM options continues to be very helpful. Beyond policy or environmental science, it's hard to find a comprehensive list of these careers".

Ultimately, the desired outcome is to increase the number of regional high school graduates hired to local STEM-related Hot Jobs in high demand and have a path to a family-sustaining salary across industries. Thus we continue to meet students where they are by training counselors, career coaches, teen center staff and other mentors on how to use this free tool to help youth–especially those most at risk–access accurate, inspiring career information from regional businesses and educators. Jason Slade, the Vice President of Innovation at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC), and NMC staff have been key providers of career pathway data. He states: "The Career Investigator website built by Newton's Road has already become a critical component of our career advising.  It has already become one of my "go-to" resources to highlight the exciting high-wage, high-skill STEM careers in the region for local incoming students."

Regional companies hiring STEM-related jobs are encouraged to take a few minutes to create a Career Investigator Employer Profile directly linked to the careers they employ and share the ways they support students in gaining real-world experiences. Join your 20 peers who are already connecting youth to their company and across the nearly 100 careers represented thus far! Fill out this quick survey or contact vista@NewtonsRoad.org to learn more and get started.

As Newton’s Road expands and sustains the Career Investigator platform, they welcome donors and sponsors seeking to make a difference in STEM education for youth in our region.  

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