Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services (CMJTS) and its partners received $63,000 in LYFT Pathways funding to develop a Career Navigation Program (CNP). CNP will provide career pathway services to secondary school students in Kandiyohi, McLeod, Meeker, and Renville counties.

CNP will prepare referred students for local success by helping them identify satisfying, high-opportunity careers (those careers supported by the labor market with potential for family-sustaining wages) in their communities. A specialized Career Navigator will assist school-identified students with vocational exploration and will advise them on the steps required to enter careers of interest. They will also help the students build workplace skills and coordinate work-based learning opportunities (e.g., unpaid or paid internships, job shadowing, informational interviews etc.) to give them first-hand knowledge of local jobs, employers, and industries.

Schools included in this project are BOLD, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (BLHS), DREAM Technical Academy, Glencoe-Silver Lake, Hutchinson, Lester Prairie, Litchfield, New Century Academy, New London-Spicer, Paynesville, Renville County West, SWWC's ELC and ALC in Willmar, and Willmar.

During 2019-20, 234 students took part in this program.

During 2020-21, 145 students took part in this program.

During 2021-22, 683 students took part in this program.

For more information contact Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services.