Northeast Indiana Works has launched two digitally based career awareness campaigns designed to encourage young people in northeast Indiana to begin charting their career paths.
One campaign, Your Future: Make It Your Own (www.yfmiyo.org), gives young people an opportunity to see how their interests align with potential careers, provides information about existing career-related resources in northeast Indiana, suggests ways parents and educators can help guide young people in making career decisions, and encourages young people to stay and work in the region once they’ve completed their education.
The second campaign, Manufacturing Begins with Me (www.manufacturing.beginswith.me), focuses on manufacturing careers in northeast Indiana. That campaign also includes hands-on day camps for middle schoolers. To date, Manufacturing Experience camps have been conducted in Allen and Noble counties. More camps are planned for this year and 2024. Manufacturing is the largest-employing industry sector in northeast Indiana.
The Your Future campaign is being funded by the Dekko and Olin B. and Desta Schwab foundations. The manufacturing campaign is being funded by the Don Wood Foundation.
Both of those campaigns feature a robust social media presence on platforms used extensively by young people.
A third career awareness campaign focusing on healthcare, the region’s second largest-employing sector, is expected to debut in 2024. It is being funded by an Indiana Department of Education Explore, Engage and Experience grant secured by the Region 8 Education Service Center. The campaign is being led by Region 8 and the Northeast Indiana Healthcare Consortium, a large group of healthcare providers, educational institutions and other key stakeholders formed by Northeast Indiana Works.
“Helping young students think strategically about their future careers is critical to building talent pipelines in northeast Indiana and ensuring a skilled workforce for many years to come,” said Rick Farrant, director of communications for Northeast Indiana Works.