Career Coach

The Career Coach will assist students in identifying their career goals through personal and group consultation. Utilizing leadership, advocacy, and collaboration, career coaches will promote high value pathways and personal success by engaging in quality coaching sessions that encompass long-term career goals and the associated return on investment for the student. 

Career Coaches will serve as a liaison to connect students with postsecondary opportunities and local employers. Their purpose will be to increase student knowledge of, access to, and placement in postsecondary opportunities aligned to high value pathways while providing adequate and accurate information about career planning, outcomes, and opportunities. The career coach will equip students with durable skills to promote success outside the school setting (resume writing, interview skills, etc.), communicate with parents regarding opportunities for students, and plan aligned postsecondary and industry visits for the students served by the career coach. 
 

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS 

Career Coaches will:

• Meet reporting requirements as set forth by AccelerateMS. 
• Share data as requested, by AccelerateMS, with their respective Career Coach Manager in a timely manner. 
• Maintain accurate and complete records of participant interactions, events, and all other work assignments. 
• Complete a career plan with every eighth and eleventh grader enrolled in the school, and corresponding feeder pattern school if necessary (completion amount based on enrollment as reported in November reporting period). 
• Have unique, individual interactions, as documented through www.msworkforce.org, with 60% of the students in grades nine through twelve at the corresponding secondary school(s). 
• Have repeat/follow-up interactions with at least 40% of the students that had unique, individual interactions, as documented in the above metric. 
• Have students review https://mspathfinder.org (or other current websites as directed by AccelerateMS) in order to determine interests and learn about high-value pathways in the student’s ecosystem and across Mississippi. 
• Screen and assist students in applying for work-based learning opportunities, to include internships, apprenticeships, job-shadowing, and for-credit work-based learning opportunities, in their area by connecting them with industry representatives and local workforce opportunities with an emphasis on high-value pathways. 
• Plan, develop, and implement on-campus and off-campus exploration opportunities, including postsecondary campus visits, career fairs, industry visits, parent sessions, and similar activities aligned with high-value pathways. 
• Work directly with the local community college to connect students to education and training opportunities as identified by AccelerateMS and the WIOA State Plan. 
• Assist students in developing durable skills, including, but not limited to, résumé writing and interviewing skills. 
• Work with the local school system, economic developers, businesses, associations, local and state agencies, as well as all relevant stakeholders to promote the career coach program and build connections to local industries. 
• Plan, develop, and implement programs working directly with parents and guardians of participants to educate them on all postsecondary opportunities (including available financing of these) for their students. 
• Be available for parent and participant inquiries. 
• Maintain an updated calendar of events and activities that will be shared with appropriate stakeholders.
• Perform other duties as assigned by grant recipient. 
• Must abide the Mississippi Educator Code of Ethics, as established by the Mississippi Department of Education.
• Must meet background check requirements. Before hire, the coach shall be fingerprinted to determine suitability for employment; If no disqualifying record is identified at the state level, the fingerprints shall be forwarded by the Department of Public Safety to the FBI for a national criminal history records check. If such fingerprinting or criminal history records check discloses a felony conviction, guilty plea or plea of nolo contendere to a felony of possession or sale of drugs, murder, manslaughter, armed robbery, rape, sexual battery, sex offense listed in Miss. Code Ann. § 45-33-23(g), child abuse, arson, grand larceny burglary, gratification of lust or aggravated assault which has not been reversed on appeal or for which a pardon has not been granted, the applicant shall not be eligible for employment.