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Building Partnerships
Industry partnerships help Chickasaw provide internships and apprenticeships, mentoring, job shadowing, field trips and virtual trips.
Chickasaw also uses state programs like AlabamaWorks to provide job training, and they engage with the local Chamber of Commerce.
Students network in the business community with steel industry giants such as AM/NS Calvert (Arcelor Mittal), SSAB and shipbuilder Austal.
They learn about opportunities in the automotive,
hospitality and service industries that thrive along the
Gulf Coast. This year, Wofford says the Chickasaw
City Schools district is preparing students to enter a
manufacturing program with Lockheed Martin.

Co-curricular career-technical student organizations
such as SkillsUSA help expand quality career-based
learning experiences beyond the state and the
country. Manufacturing teacher Brian Copes and his
students collaborated with the local SkillsUSA chapter
to build prosthetic limbs and a portable classroom in
Honduras. He taught in both brick-and-mortar and
virtual settings in the district.
“It helps to have a teacher who can do both,” said
Jaclyn Stringer, CTE administrator of the Alabama
In this video clip, Jaclyn Stringer explains how the Alabama Destinations Career Academy Destinations Career Academy, a virtual program of
offers value to its students and the business community.
Chickasaw City Schools.
Eller also worked closely with SREB to create career pathways and has plans to implement SREB’s Powerful Literacy Instructional
Practices, Powerful Mathematics Instructional Practices and approach to career and college counseling to increase students’ foundational
skills and readiness for the workforce or careers.
Preparing Students at Each Grade Level
Career coaches prepare students on every level for life after high school by creating hands-on experiences in the classroom while facilitating
relationships between students and professionals. Visiting speakers, whether on-site or virtual, help students explore available career
opportunities. Business partners benefit from offering these types of experiences because they are a source of training and recruiting
talented students who can fill gaps in the workforce.

Students are completely immersed in career exploration and understand how what they are doing in the classroom affects their real-world
experience and their future, says Wofford.

Southern Regional Education Board I Promising Practices Newsletter I 21V02w I SREB.org 2