Baton Rouge teachers learn about STEM jobs for students through BRAC externship program  

This summer, Baton Rouge area high school students might have been traveling for vacations, packing their duffel bags for camp or picking up a few extra dollars working a part-time job.
Scores of their teachers, on the other hand, were learning about the in-demand STEM jobs their students might one day fill, spending their summer “vacation” at area chemical plants, software development companies and health care facilities, as Business Report details in a recent feature.

Over a four-day period in early June, 45 teachers from 10 Capital Region school districts participated in the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s fourth annual Teacher Externship program. The teachers are split into groups, shadowing workers at one of BRAC’s 12 partner companies and engaging on day-to-day operations. Each teacher receives a $1,000 stipend, but the goal is to have them develop a semester-long plan of action to incorporate whey they learned into micro-lessons within the classroom.

Ethan Melancon, BRAC’s policy and research manager, says the chamber started the externship program as a way to expand STEM partnerships in PK-12 public education. In other words, introduce teachers to the myriad of STEM jobs available to their students in the Baton Rouge region.

“We’ve noticed that the education sphere and the industry sphere were working mainly in silos,” Melancon says. “But teachers can influence careers in all these areas.”
While some job titles like “chemical engineer” require college degrees, many do not.
And with a statewide need for skilled labor, the 45 teachers from the externship program are writing up lesson plans embedded with practical career advice for students, whether they’re on the college track or not.
Over the next 20 years, 55% of the jobs that will be available in Louisiana require a technical degree, Lamonica says. Experts predict the number of STEM jobs to rise 10% in the state within the year. And, as the education community learned, BRAC’s partner companies, among various others, will have jobs to fill.

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