Partnering with the Louisiana Department of Education and the workforce development experts at Edge Factor, four CTE Directors in Louisiana are taking the lead in promoting CTE programs and empowering students to discover local career pathways!
These CTE Directors, LaRunda Pierce from Rapides Parish, Tony McCardle from Calcasieu Parish, Staci Polozola from Livingston Parish and Ronda Matthews from Ascension Parish, are equipping middle and high school educators in their region with two-year access to a platform of turnkey, story-driven videos and interactive tools. Known as “the Netflix for Workforce Development”, Edge Factor’s online platform and signature method of merging cinematic storytelling with interactive tools empowers educators and business leaders to inspire students, reach parents, and raise awareness of local career opportunities.
“The need for skilled workers in each parish and statewide continues to grow,” said Krystal Fitzpatrick, Edge Factor’s Regional Director of Community Impact. “These four Parishes in Louisiana are taking exciting steps to raise awareness of local career pathways, teach soft skills, show how Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) comes alive in the real world, and better prepare high school graduates for college and the workforce.”
Edge Factor has linked arms with national and local partners to help communities bridge the gap between business and education and engage audiences in classrooms, homes, and events, in communities all across North America. Implementing the Edge Factor for Education platform in these parishes means that educators and school counselors will be equipped with a library of high impact media and accompanying activities. These resources are designed to inspire students to pursue CTE programs, make STEAM relevant, highlight career profiles, instill soft skills, introduce technology, include hands-on activities, parent resources, cinematic stories, and much more.
With the launch of the Education platform in schools, Louisiana businesses now have the opportunity to be featured in classrooms and homes with Edge Factor for Business memberships. They can create and upload videos to the Education platform, that raise awareness of their companies, careers and how STEAM is used in their facilities.
“In every community, we work in, we want to infuse the local flavor of that region into our library of tools,” said Jeremy Bout, Founder of Edge Factor. “This November, we are bringing the Edge Factor film crew to film in each Parish, talking with school leadership and aligning Edge Factor content with Jump Start pathways, meeting local businesses, and organizations. We will be filming real people, in real jobs, highlighting local career opportunities.”
“I love the new items that [Edge Factor] is preparing for the platform and we are very excited to see some personalization to our region/state!” said Staci Polozola, CTE Director of Livingston Parish.
Learn more about Edge Factor and the features available to help you equip and inspire a students career exploration journey.
