Southaven and DeSoto County has always been known for its excellent public schools. The DeSoto County School District consistently ranks in the Top 20 in Mississippi with its high-test scores, a graduation rate topping over 90 percent, ACT scores above the state average, and a rigorous curriculum that prepares students to move on to a two-year or four-year higher education path to achieve their career goals.      

However, not all students desire to go to college, and with Mississippi facing a looming shortage of welders, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, truck drivers, and other blue-collar fields, DeSoto County Schools now has another resource available to help those students discover a successful path to the workplace after graduation. As part of a statewide effort to support workforce training and workforce development, DeSoto County Schools now has career coaches in all eight of its high schools.

Launched last fall by AccelerateMS, the state’s lead workforce development agency, AccelerateMS awarded grants to local regional development organizations — in the case of DeSoto County, through Three Rivers Planning and Development District — to recruit, hire, and place coaches in school districts across the state. So far, AccelerateMS has placed 176 career coaches in 115 school districts. Coaches are focused on driving growth in targeted sectors to serve better serve Mississippi’s workforce.

Lucy Hasselman, assistant superintendent of accreditation and advanced academics with DeSoto County Schools, says the goal of the career coaches is to help students develop a better understanding of their career interests, and to develop a plan with the support of local employers who need skilled workers to get them the skills they will need to find job opportunities in their chosen field. Students gain valuable experience through job shadowing, internships, or training and employment opportunities to prepare them for better career opportunities across the state.

“The career coaches ensure high school student are exposed, prepared, and connected to career avenues within and beyond the classroom setting, and target a student’s strengths with intentional academic and work-based learning in pursuit of meaningful professional employment,” Hasselman says. Career coaches offer guidance and support by providing personalized career counseling, identifying each individual’s strengths  and interests, and then connecting students to relevant resources to help them make informed decisions about their academic and career paths.

Having a plan for life beyond high school is the key to success for all students. By assisting students in identifying their passions, strengths, and career interests, Hasselman says the career coaches are empowering students to make informed choices and set achievable goals.

“Career coaches ensure that students are not just academically proficient, but also equipped with the essential life skills and career insights needed to thrive beyond the classroom,” Hasselman says. “In essence, they contribute significantly to the district’s mission of producing well-rounded, confident, and ambitious students who excel in their chosen careers and make a positive impact on their community and society as a whole.”

Michele Everson, the career coach for Southaven High School, says many kids are told by their parents — and society as a whole — from an early age that they have to go to college to succeed. But according to surveys, only 27 percent of adults who graduated from college and obtained a degree are actually working in a job using the degree they received.

“We have so many people who are graduating with a mountain of student loan debt and they are having to pay it back but are not even working in the field they got their degree in,” Everson says. “So what we are finding is that you don’t actually have to complete a four-year degree to have a good career option.”

Mississippi, like many other states, is under-prepared for the future workforce needs, especially in the trades. Many men and women who work in the trades are 55 and older and are starting to age out of the workforce. The average age of a tradesman now is 58 years old. “I think we are realizing that as a society and community that we are going to be in trouble in a few years when all of these people retire and we have so few tradesmen left,” she says.

Career coaches begin working with students starting in the ninth grade up to the twelfth grade. They identify their career goals through one-on-one meetings and group consultations, and help them set goals and identify the steps needed to achieve them, whether it is continuing their education by obtaining a job training certificate, entering the workforce, or a combination of both. Coaches expose students to careers in different industries, let them investigate options to see what fits them best, and then prepare them for those careers and the best way to accomplish it.

Coaches also bring in guest speakers from different professions and work with employers in the community to set up internships and job shadowing and other meaningful work-based learning opportunities. They also work on soft skills like how to dress in the workplace, interviewing skills, and basic etiquette like making eye contact and shaking hands — skills that are becoming increasingly lost in today’s world where everyone is glued to their cell phone.

Everson said students make better choices about the future when they have support at the high school level. “We are doing all of that while they are still in high school so that we can connect them with either the educational programs they are going to need, or the employers they are going to work for,” she says. “So it is an incredible opportunity for these students to narrow in and really see if this is the field they want to work in.”

Everson says plenty of careers are out there for students who don’t want to go to a four-year college that pay well and there is a strong demand for those jobs. She is currently working with nine different students placing them in internships. One student was torn between whether he wanted to go into plumbing or automotive services. He completed a one-day job shadowing with plumber and now is working a paid 100-hour internship at a local auto mechanic business.

“They will let him observe what they do, but they will also let him get his hands dirty to really take part in the work,” Everson says. Another student she is working with is interested in careers in the health sciences field but isn’t sure if they want to be a nurse, surgical technician, or radiologist. That student is now interning at Baptist Hospital, where she will be exposed to all kinds of different career options in health care.

“They will be able to try out everything from nursing in labor and delivery, to a surgical technician and being in the operating room,” Everson says. “Baptist is great to work with. They give students an amazing array of careers in health sciences to look at.”

Angela Fletcher, the career coach at DeSoto Central High School, says career coaches are the conduit from high school to a student’s next step in life. “We start in kindergarten talking about what do you want to be when you grow up. You hear the usual: doctor, lawyer, nurse, teacher. But we really don’t spent a whole lot of time from then until they graduate saying, ‘Okay, these are the careers you can do. You’re great at chemistry. But what does that look like in a career field,” Fletcher says.

“So I talk to them in great depth about different careers. I help them find what they are interested in, their personality types, and what it will take for them to achieve a job in that field.” Auto mechanics, truck driving, and diesel repair are some of the most common interests she sees in the trade fields. On the college side, it’s nursing, law, and surprisingly, the arts.

Meeting with a career coach is not mandatory. Students can visit with career coaches whenever it is convenient to them. Fletcher spends much of her efforts targeting 11th-graders and 12th-graders who are going to graduate in December. In a lot of cases, Fletcher says students don’t have a career plan, or if they have a plan, they don’t know how to make it happen. Many tell her that no one has ever asked them what their plans are after they graduate.

That’s where she comes in. “If they are going into their workplace, I want to help them with job shadowing and internships,” she says. “If they are going to college, I want to make sure they have sent their application in and that they have applied for scholarships and housing.”

She had one young man who told her that his dream was to own a Chick-fil-A restaurant and asked her if she could get him a job there. She contacted the Chick-fil-A location on Getwell Road and was able to get him a paid internship where he will learn everything from the back of the house operations, to marketing and how to open a store.

Another young man came to her and said he wanted to be an engineer. When she asked him what type of engineer, he had no idea that there were several different kinds of engineers. Fletcher says she gave him a homework assignment to go and research the engineering field and then let her know what type he was interested in. “He came back and met with me and ended up having the most fantastic internship with Civil-Link,” Fletcher says. “He is getting exposed to every type of engineering out there through Civil Link.”

Fletcher believes that having career coaches in schools has been the missing piece that was needed in the state’s educational system. She wishes that she had a career coach back when she was in high school.

“We had one guidance counselor at my school,” she says. “I remember going to see him. He told me the best way to predict what I wanted to do was to take the military ASVAB test. So I took the ASVAB and I said, ‘Well, what about college?’ He said, ‘Well, just find one that fits you.’ I remember sending in all these applications and there was no guidance. It was ‘figure it out yourself.’”

With the help of a career coach, she’s able to connect students with a wealth of college and technical education choices and job opportunities in the skilled trade fields that are available to them after high school. She points to her own daughter and son, who both went to Rhodes College in Memphis. Her daughter majored in English and loved college. She is currently a teacher in DeSoto County. Her son absolutely hated college and dropped out in his senior year. At 26 years old, he now owns two demolition companies and makes a six-figure income. “I want to help students find their passion,” Fletcher says. “And for them to be able to charge forward to these career paths is incredible.”

Hasselman with DeSoto County Schools says the school district is excited about the work the career coaches are already doing in the schools. It’s evident, she says, that the coaches are deeply committed to the success and well-being of the students, and expect even greater outcomes in the future as more and more students seek out their help to achieve their career dreams.

“They work closely with our school counselors and together, the personalized support, mentorship, and practical insights they provide, are instrumental in helping students make informed decisions about their educational and career paths,” she says. “They are opening doors to opportunities that might have otherwise gone unnoticed by our students. Their efforts will help ensure that the district is preparing students for the ever-changing demands of the real world.”