Tarah and Dan meet the individuals responsible for creating Chattanooga’s VW Akadmie

In addition to building Passats in its Chattanooga plant, Volkswagen builds a workforce through its onsite academy. That’s because job applicants arrive unprepared for technical careers, deficient in STEM skills and critical thinking capabilities. Daniel DeScalzo and Tarah Kemp also prepare a pipeline of qualified employees, they just happen to be doing it at nearby Dupont Elementary School.

“As we reflected on the impact of Volkswagen in our county, we grew curious about the influence of European branches of the company in educational communities abroad,” said Daniel. “We designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to explore how assembly plants in Barcelona, Brussels, Ingolstadt and Wolfsburg, Germany, partner with schools to create an interdependency that produces gainfully-employed high school graduates.”

Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant

With help from Volkswagen’s senior vice president of human resources, the teachers researched real-world skills modeled in European plants and discovered that most of the employees on assembly lines were 17- or 18-year-olds who left work in nice cars and drove to comfortable homes. Technical and vocational training during primary school years positioned these students for careers and often fully-paid graduate degrees with the company.

Exposure to the inner-workings of the automobile plants helped Daniel and Tarah realize that the missing link between their students’ knowledge and future STEM professions was a deficiency in engineering design. In response, Tarah established a network among local business executives to increase students’ exposure to job opportunities close to home. She also pitched an idea to Public Education Foundation’s Teacherpreneur program to obtain funding for a 3-5 year initiative that promotes hands-on, project-based learning through a culinary unit. Daniel applied funds saved from the FFT grant toward the purchase of robotic kits and invited mechanical engineers from a local pump manufacturer to partner with students on prototypes.

“If you ask our students about career goals, they would list being a YouTube personality, sports star, video gamer or fashion designer,” said Daniel. “Through exposure to industry opportunities and engineers, we want students to say, ‘I want to make things, design things, do this for a living.’ We want them to know there’s so much opportunity out there and empower them to make a life for themselves and the world awaiting them.”

(pictured above touring Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg plant, the largest automotive factory in Europe.)

Anne interviews a vocational educator in Zurich

Every teacher strives to prepare students for a productive future. For students with special needs, that future can look atypical. Fortunately, in New York City’s public education system, Anne Cortissoz is an atypical teacher.

Recognizing few opportunities for vocational education, especially for students with disabilities, Anne used a Fund for Teachers grant to attend the International Conference on Inclusion and Special Education in Zurich. Afterwards, she researched the Swiss Vocational Education and Training system and observed students in workplace environments. She heard success stories from world-renowned experts and witnessed students’ with multiple intelligences flourishing in post-secondary career options.

“In American society, people are justifiably sensitive to relegating students with disabilities to the vocational education track,” said Anne. “However, in Switzerland I researched apprenticeships and industries that took pride in their inclusion of students like mine. That country’s sustained high employment rate made me question whether families and students might choose that track if it were offered or encouraged.”

Back in the Bronx, Anne worked with guidance counselors to introduce vocational planning in ninth grade and sought out student internship opportunities with community mentors. Her math classes pivoted to provide project-based problem solving with relevant applications in fields such as construction, plumbing and graphic design.

Drawing on a model from Switzerland, Anne now teaches a “Virtual Enterprise” track that leads to technical certifications and diploma credentials. Students design business plans and develop products with the help of local businesses, which facilitate job shadowing, mock interviews and resume writing workshops.

“Greater real-world math applications through authentic learning opportunities now promote career readiness in my classes,” said Anne. “And, for the first time this year, students are participating in paid internships, for which they develop job descriptions and maintain time sheets. It’s been an extraordinary experience for them and a dream come true for me to see them ultimately head into the workforce.”

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Formerly a part of the telecommunications industry, Anne is now certified in both Mathematics and Special Education and utilizes a range of successful instructional, literacy and technology strategies, “real world” applications and differentiation techniques to foster critical thinking, higher order problem solving skills, and student growth.