SCOTTSBORO, Ala. — Hard Hat Girls & Women in CTE, Construction & Manufacturing officially launched on March 2, and they currently have 60 students in these programs through Jackson County Schools, Scottsboro City Schools, and the women in business, in the industry.
Jackson County Mountain Lakes Director of Talent Development Nancy Griggs said, "... my initiative here at the Mt. Lakes Chamber of Commerce is Workforce Solutions and part of my job is to collaborate with educator, educators, business and industry to develop and implement educational and workforce development programs."
Griggs continued by explaining that she started thinking about more businesses in the industry that are interested in more women and females working in their companies. "So I said, well, I could develop the Association for Girls students that are currently in these types of programs to study and also for women in business, in the industry, in these jobs." she stated.
Statistics show that there are only about 11% of women currently in the workforce, in industry, and then these types of jobs. "So our 10th, 11th and 12th graders are currently in Jackson County and Scottsboro City Schools in these type programs," said Griggs.
Griggs iterated that when these students graduate from High School, this is one of their programs of study. "We also developed another program that we call Jackson Lots, and it is a specified specific co-op program for these types of jobs. So our goal here is to educate and expose these young girls into these types of jobs and also get some co-op program, get them in the co-op program and end their foot in the door with these industries," she said.
Lastly, Griggs said, "...we also just launched Youth Science, and Youth Science says that their statistics show that the females are doing very well in these types of jobs and careers, she continued.