A group of Jackson Public School District students is gaining on-the-job training through the inaugural Nissan JPS Career Development Center Spring Internship Program.
The 10 seniors participating represent six of the district’s eight high schools and are in the second year of study in their respective programs—welding, automotive services or digital media—at the Career Development Center.
Jackson Public Schools, Nissan North America, and the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District are partners in the program. The internship is exclusively available to JPS students enrolled at CDC.
“The second year they start really getting into specifics within the discipline,” CDC Principal Eric Cook told the Mississippi Free Press on Feb. 14. “We do some leadership building, resume building and entrepreneurship exposure, so they’ve had all of these pieces along with their involvement and engagement in their student organization to get them prepared for the demands that are part of the internship.”
The JPS Career Development Center offers 20 programs for mainly juniors and seniors in the school district. It prepares students for required exams such as the National Center for Construction Education and Research Welding certification and the Automotive Service Excellence certification test. The school also administers the ACT WorkKeys to all of its students. Nissan requires its workers to earn a silver level or above on the exam. Cook said each of the students in the internship has already met this requirement.
“It’s a lot on the students and they have risen to the occasion to be able to manage both an internship and to be able to continue with their coursework along with the academic work that they do,” Cook said. “I’m really proud of them for really stepping up to the plate, managing their time and being excited and committed to the program.”
Reggie Knighten serves as the Senior Advanced Skill Master Trainer for Nissan’s three U.S. plants, and he oversees the internship program at the manufacturing plant. Knighten said the partnership was a no-brainer considering that many of the students in the area have parents or family members who work at the plant.
“Hinds County is one
Read original article by clicking here.