Career Destinations

DCMO BOCES Career Destinations Program responds to the need to retain our youth with career and job opportunities with our local employers.  This proactive initiative has the potential of improving, or reversing, the negative population decline trend and opens new doors for educators, parents, and industry leaders to work together to impact our future.  This electronic page is our portal to improve communications and for all partners to communicate and share all the opportunities available for students to identify local jobs, career opportunities, and partnerships to help them succeed.

We all play an important role.  The following are two key players in this endeavor to retain our young with exciting career opportunities in our region:

Employers

Grooming the workforce of the future is one of the best investments we can make to build strong communities.  Every opportunity employers can offer our students, helps the Career Destinations program achieve the goal of connecting these young people to exciting local careers.  Business partners can offer many opportunities to our students like:

  • Internships or Shadowing Opportunities

  • Work-Based Learning Experiences

  • Scholarships 

  • Company Funded Tuition for Higher Education 

  • Participation in Advisory Council

  • Presentations in the Classroom

  • Consulting Services for Educators to Improve Job Preparation

  • Donation of Equipment or Senior Staff Time To Train Students

Educators

School educators play a relevant role.  Your daily interactions with students and your experience working with their talents and challenges make you the best person to influence, guide, and support young people in the search for the best career destination.

School Champions support the Career Exploration Program with the following tasks:

  • Influence students to participate and explore opportunities with the Career Destinations programs

  • Connect at the personal level with students to coach them and help them complete their career plans

  • Communicate with students to understand their needs and identify school resources to help them achieve their goals

  • Meet with the Career Exploration Coordinator to suggest approaches to improve students resources

  • Participate in Career Exploration Programs to learn about industry job and career opportunities

  • Serve as Ambassadors to engage other school staff with the implementation of the program 

Contact

Jennifer Lawrence
Director of Career & Technical Education

Julie Wallen
Administrative Assistant
(607) 335-1258

Christina McCall-Hopkins
Work Based Learning Coordinator
(607) 335-1454

BOCES logo with compass-like redesign

Objective

DCMO BOCES is the regional leader in promoting regional growth of the skilled workforce. Our mission is to reset our local workforce by promoting growth in career-ready fields in order to:
• Curb loss of population in upstate NY that threatens the region’s  economy, schools, and social programs
 • Provide enough skilled workers to replace the retiring workforce
 • Promote local job sustainability in order to retain high school and college graduates from relocating to other regions of the United States.

Why BOCES?

DCMO BOCES is the only organization in the region with access to all students in the 16 component schools and is the leader in Career and Technical Education, which provides work experience coordination and career development counseling to students. As of 2017, the new Career Development and Occupational Studies credential for NYS requires schools to provide career development education to there students, which BOCES can assist with. 

More Than BOCES

To be successful we must have a strong partnership between component districts and local businesses to focus on the crucial issues. Programming will be phased in over time, beginning in high school, then proceeding to the elementary level. To achieve a successful career awareness program, BOCES, along with our component districts, will partner with the local industry to provide field trips that identify the jobs available and the skills required and provide formal work experience, such as shadowing, and internships/apprenticeships, and more.