Webinars – CTE, Student Engagement and Soft Skills

Perkins V defines work-based learning (WBL) as “sustained interactions with industry or community professionals in real workplace settings… or simulated environments at an educational institution that fosters in-depth, firsthand engagement with the tasks required in a given career field.” In this free webinar, you’ll discover how Realityworks’ interactive training tools can help you create simulated environments in your own classroom that address important technical and soft skills — directly from educators who use these tools themselves.

Guest panelists: 

• Lynn Aprill, Director of Education for Economic Development (CESA 8), Wisconsin
  • Introduction to Work-Based Learning and Perkins V
• Celena Mills, Office of Career and Technical Education, Michigan Department of Education, Michigan 
  • Work-Based Learning Activities in Health Science
• Kimberly Baldwin, Family & Consumer Sciences, FCCLA Adviser, Ponderosa High School, Colorado
  • Work-Based Learning Activities in FCS
• Mikel Cobb, Realityworks Mechanical Design Engineer and former tech ed instructor, Wisconsin
  • Work-Based Learning Activities in Skilled Trades

Webinar (34:55 min)

Presented by Denise DuBois, Realityworks Family and Consumer Sciences Senior Product Manager, Alliance for Family and Consumer Sciences Co-Chair, National Consortium for Health Science Education Executive Council Member

Work-Based Learning Activities for Your CTE Program

Webinar Handouts – Download

A high-quality CTE program must meet specific criteria, from standards-aligned and integrated curriculum to student assessment and work-based learning. We can help you ensure that your CTE program meets those essential standards, whether you’re starting a new program or revitalizing an existing one. Our secret? Pathway packages. In this presentation, you’ll learn how Realityworks’ turnkey bundles of hands-on training tools and comprehensive curriculum align to the ACTE Quality of CTE Program of Study Framework™ — and how they can help you engage today’s students in career exploration and skill development while maximizing program funding.

Webinar (38:01 min)

Presented by Karen McDowell, Realityworks Education Development Manager

Using Pathway Packages to Create High-Quality CTE Programs

Skills like communication and teamwork were in-demand before the pandemic; in today’s post-COVID world, these skills are even more desirable. In this presentation, you’ll see up-to-date research on the importance of soft skills in any career and get simple ideas, plus tons of free resources, for incorporating soft skills into any classroom.

Webinar (36:45 min)

Presented by Emily Kurth, Realityworks Communications Specialist

Teaching Soft Skills in Any Classroom: Tips and Ideas for Student Engagement

Helping today’s students develop interest in potential careers not only benefits their futures but brings relevant and fun learning opportunities to the classroom. Attendees in this webinar will hear why career exploration is an effective way to grab students’ attention and what activities are the most effective for middle and high school classrooms. We will also share free resources to enhance career exploration lessons.

Attendees will:

• Learn engagement techniques for today’s learners
• Discover the value of incorporating career exploration into the classroom
• Receive free activities and lessons plans you can use immediately

Webinar (35:03 min)

Presented by Samantha Forehand, Realityworks Marketing Communications Manager

Career Exploration Activities for Middle or High School Classrooms

The Backward Pathway Model is a way of designing Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, so they better align with the job market in your community, rather than creating programs that are “close enough” to those jobs. In the Backward Pathway Model, students are exposed to experiential learning and simulation that allows them to build skills in technical areas. This model lets students understand and experience careers that can jumpstart their professional careers.

Attendees will:

• Learn what a Backward Pathway Model is and what it could look like in their own district
• Review strategies to evaluate their own programs
• Learn how to create programs that meet the changing needs of modern students 

Presented by Diane Ross, Educational Development Manager

Webinar (36:14 min)
Creating a Backward CTE Pathway Model

Do your students understand the importance of vision, diplomacy, coaching and team building? Whatever career path they choose, entrepreneurship skills like these will help them succeed. In this webinar, we’ll share tips and best practices for integrating entrepreneurial skills into any CTE program to teach students the skills they’ll need for future business success.

Attendees will:

• Learn best practices you can apply to your own entrepreneurship instruction
• Receive lesson plans and activities you can use immediately
• Discover resources that can make entrepreneurship easy to integrate in any CTE program
• Review Realityworks’ Contemporary Entrepreneurship Program

Presented by Denise DuBois, Realityworks Product Manager

Webinar (32:28 min)
Best Practices for Integrating Entrepreneurship Into CTE Courses

Skills like communication and teamwork were in-demand before the pandemic; in today’s world, employability skills are even more desirable. In this presentation attendees will review up-to-date research on the importance of employability skills in any career and get simple ideas for incorporating them into any classroom.

Attendees will:

• Explore the importance of soft skills in any career
• Learn the top soft skills employees need to succeed in a post-pandemic workforce
• Get ideas for incorporating soft skills practice into any class
• Briefly review Realityworks’ soft skills training tools, including online and paper-based program

Presented by Emily Kurth, Marketing Communications Specialist

Webinar (20:01 min)
Teaching Employability Skills in Any Class: Ideas for Student Engagement

Do your students understand the importance of vision, diplomacy, coaching or team-building? Whatever career path they choose, employability skills, or soft skills, will help them succeed as leaders. In this webinar, we share tips and best practices for integrating leadership skills into any CTE program to teach students the soft skills they’ll need for leadership beyond the classroom. Learn three best practices and activities that you can use immediately to apply them in your teaching.

Presented by Denise DuBois, Product Manager

Webinar (38:22 min)
Integrating Leadership Soft Skills into Your CTE Program

By definition, innovation is an idea, creation or development aimed at improving how things are done. It is inevitable; it will drive the jobs of tomorrow. How are you preparing your students for these future careers and what foundation are you giving them to be future-ready? Innovation must be mainstream in the CTE classroom. It allows students to see where they might be years down the road. How is innovation being implemented into CTE classrooms, and what does the modern CTE classroom look like? How can you evaluate your own program for future readiness and innovation? Join us for a free, 30-minute webinar to find out. 

During this presentation, attendees will have an opportunity to look at how innovation paired with skills-based CTE can create future-ready learning environments for today’s students.

Objectives:

• Allow attendees to discover the benefits of innovation in CTE
• Evaluate ideas for various pathways to increase innovation
• See how CTE classrooms have grown their programs with interactive tools

Presented by: Diane Ross, Educational Development Manager

Webinar (25:33 min)
The Driving Force Behind Innovation: Skill-Based CTE

Staying connected to students, engaging the learner, and helping students achieve their academic goals are all challenges we have heard educators are facing when looking at the teaching environments they may be facing this next school year. During this 45-minute webinar attendees will hear from a panel of Career and Technical Education teachers on their best practices for teaching remotely. Each panelist comes from a different discipline within CTE and has found success when using a variety of strategies. Participants will hear best practices, get resources to extend learning and have an opportunity to ask questions.

Panelists Include:

• Rhonda Evatt, Health Science Instructor at Anderson Institute of Technology
• Alaina Tharp, FCS Instructor at Tri-Valley Local Schools
• Krysten Dane, FCS Instructor at Glencoe- Silver Lake Public Schools

Webinar (56:24 min)
Successful Remote Learning Strategies for the CTE Classroom

In a 30-minute webinar, Realityworks Product Support Supervisor Chris Potapenko will walk through setting up a Google Classroom for online deployment of student activities, classroom management and organization.

Attendees will:

• • • Hear common remote teaching strategies
    • Learn about setting up a Google Classroom for your learning environment
    • Walk away with new knowledge on the benefits of an online classroom

Presented by: Chris Potapenko

Webinar (22:17 min)
Easy Steps for using Google Classroom

You’re invited to discover engaging ways to teach your students important soft skills– without leaving your computer. In this free, 45-minute webinar Realityworks Product Manager Denise DuBois will review lesson content from the curricula that accompanies our Employability Skills and Leadership Soft Skills products. You’ll receive links, handouts, activities and ideas you can use to teach the lessons in an e-learning environment. You’ll also learn about other resources available to you.

Webinar (39:16 min)
Delivering Soft Skills Content Online
Webinar Handouts – Download

Do your students understand the importance of vision, diplomacy, coaching or team building? Whatever career path they choose, employability skills, or soft skills, will help them succeed as leaders. In this 30-minute webinar, we share tips and best practices for integrating the RealCareer Leadership Soft Skills Program into any program to teach students the soft skills they’ll need for leadership beyond the classroom.

Webinar (27:40 min)
Implementing the Leadership Soft Skills Program