Photo Caption: Taha’an Gordon, second from right, poses with Nestle staffers, from left, Angli Konsa, Barbara Barroso, the Nestle rabbit, plant manager Thomas Wunderlich and Serena Demills after signing an agreement to participate in the company's production apprenticeship program following his graduation from the Anderson D26 Career Center.
No one kept the audience in suspense before pulling out a baseball cap to reveal who they were signing with during a special event last week at Anderson D26 Career Center.
But the ceremony to honor 19 departing seniors who are moving in to full-time employment immediately after graduation generated no shortage of cheers, proud smiles and hugs among friends and family members.
“It’s a win-win-win situation with our relationships with our area industry partners,” said Jason Neal, director of the D26 Career Center. “With these partnerships, students have a clear post-secondary pathway in place and can move directly into the workforce.”
Honorees from five D26 programs took turns at a table set up at the front of the building’s commons area, signing certificates along with their new employers as Emily Cummins, D26’s work-based learning coordinator, shared their accomplishments and future plans.
Businesses of a variety of sizes had representatives at the center’s Signing Night event, and many of them pointed out that vocational and technical education facilities like D26 hold a significant key to growing their labor forces – and ensuring they’ll have a stable pipeline of young, job-ready talent in years to come.
“For us, it is really a long-term approach,” said Thomas Wunderlich, plant manager at Nestle, which signed two D26 graduates during Thursday’s ceremony. “It’s about long-term workforce development for us as well, to have a really strong way of developing and securing the long-term future of our site and drawing us into the community.”
One of the newest Nestle employees, Taha’an Gordon, said having a full-time job lined up well before graduation was an overwhelming feeling.
“I’m just so excited,” he said. “The people who helped me along the way made this possible, and I wouldn’t be able to do it without them.”
Cummins said with millions struggling with student loan debt years after leaving college, interest in trade schools, military service and other direct-to-work opportunities has rarely been more intense than in the last several years.
“We do see that trend,” Cummins said, “so we have to be able to prepare our kids to take these jobs that are in demand and that we’re missing people for.”
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin.