Student Success Summit Focuses On Being ‘Career-Ready’

Hundreds of teachers from across the state will gather in Charleston this week – to learn how to incorporate the concept of being “career-ready” into their lesson plans.

The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, the West Virginia Community and Technical College System, and the West Virginia Department of Education will host this year’s West Virginia Student Success Summit. This is a collaborative event focusing on creating seamless and supportive lifelong learning systems for the state’s students. 

The 2023 theme is “Creating a Career-Ready West Virginia.” The plan is to focus on forging student pathways to meet the demand of future job markets. 

Sarah Tucker is West Virginia’s chancellor of higher education for the state. She said the summit is meant to refresh teachers on the state’s new educational goals.

“It’s really an opportunity for them to have a couple of days to workshop things that are working well in their classrooms,” Tucker said. “To take a step back and think differently about the work that they’re doing. This one is particularly focused on becoming career ready.” 

She said many students are not aware of the state’s many new economic development job prospects, such as Nucor Steel and Form Energy. She hopes this summit will help teachers enhance their educational message.   

“Our students don’t know about them,” Tucker said. “They don’t have any idea. They are concerned that staying in West Virginia will mean that they don’t have very many prospects, and the exact opposite is true right now. And so how do we get that message across to them? How do we arm them with that information so that they know that they can talk with their students about all of these opportunities and possibilities that are happening in our state right now?”

Participants will include educators, counselors and administrators from the pre-school, elementary, secondary and postsecondary education systems; workforce professionals; business and community leaders and military personnel. 

 Additionally, there will be a student showcase in the afternoon on the first day of the summit where student organizations will demonstrate innovative career-driven projects and programs.  

The Student Success Summit runs Wednesday and Thursday at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.