Staff photos / R. Michael Semple Under the watchful eye of Ken Iser, instructor of the Trumbull County Educational Service Center’s building trades program, Niles McKinley High School student Kellyn Ryan, 18, cuts a board during carpentry class at Lordstown Elementary School, which was a former career center. The TCESC has launched a Career Navigator program for students to prepare them for the workforce rather than college.

Eight Trumbull County school districts are taking part in the Career Navigator program offered by the Trumbull County Educational Service Center to prepare students for their futures.

Denise Holloway, supervisor of curriculum and instruction with a focus on workforce development, said the participating districts so far are Bristol, Hubbard, Joseph Badger, LaBrae, Mathews, McDonald, Niles and Southington. Holloway said planning and coordinating for the program started this year.

“We received a YSU Career Pathway grant and looked at what would be the best way to use this money and give back to the school districts. We felt we needed to strengthen our career counseling and career advising. We created a position of a person who could go into these districts and really make sure that students are exposed to meaningful career pathways,” Holloway said.

The $45,000 grant will cover program costs for the first year.

She said students are shown what skills, experiences and career credentials they would need to join the workforce. Holloway said the target right now is high school students, but there is also a middle school component.

“It is important to expose students to different careers. Most children will be exposed to 10 different careers of their parents, neighbors and relatives. Our purpose is to extend that exposure beyond that,” she said.

Holloway said a career navigator will go to the schools and work alongside administrators and school counselors to look at each school’s data. She said the schools will look at providing career apprenticeships for the students and expose them to different career fields.

“This is a countywide effort not just with our schools, but with our industry leaders,” Holloway said.

She said the TCESC has a business advisory council in contact with more than 40 industry and business leader partners in health care, manufacturing, mental health, social services, hospitality, and finance and banking.

Holloway said the TCESC meets with the business leaders quarterly to find out what their needs are and what job skills they are looking for in future workers. She said the career navigator will work to strengthen what students learn in school to make them successful when they join the workforce.

“We want to focus on building strong pathways in our districts,” Holloway said.

She said the TCESC has created four pre-apprenticeship programs and pathways based on student interest and aptitude — finance, information technology, health care, and hospitality and tourism.

Holloway said working with business and industry leaders will emable job shadowing, internships and mentoring to help provide employment opportunities for the students.

.”We want to see how we can best support our districts with career development;” she said.

She said the career navigator will do cognitive based tests with the seventh and ninth grade students that will help in developing courses in line with what students need.

“The cognitive based tests allow students to see where their skill set is,” she said.

The career navigator begins Aug. 1 for the 2026-27 school year.

Holloway said the preapprenticeship carpentry program at Lordstown schools has provided graduates for local companies.

“These are seniors who will be going into the apprenticeship programs in the trades and afforded the opportunity to find jobs here in the Mahoning Valley,” Holloway said.

Robert Marino, superintendent of the TCESC, said it is important that students obtain the skills they need for selected career choices as they prepare for careers in various fields after high school.

“We want to assist schools in connecting to workforce and ensuring the pipeline of workers has the skills the job market is seeking. The communication between the workforce and the schools is more important than ever today. We want to encourage our students to make the Mahoning Valley their home,” Marino said,

SUPERINTENDENTS’ COMMENTS

Bristol Schools Superintendent Chris Dray said he is excited about the career navigator as the district added a career-based intervention program this year with an instructor teaching students job skills. He said the goal is to have students in their senior year go out and work after they take classes at school in the morning.

“I think this Career Navigators builds upon that. I’m very interested in something called youth science testing, where basically students will take aptitude assessments that will determine what their strengths and their interests are. I think that would be very helpful to students as they’re trying to decide what they’re going to do in the future,” Dray said.

He said the career navigator will be a real benefit to helping with career pathways, making sure the district is keeping track of data and hopefully staying aware of any potential money to support the program.

Dray said the position can be looking at apprenticeships and job fairs and help supplement what the district does with graduation requirements.

LaBrae Superintendent Anthony Calderone said the district approved a two-year contract for the career navigator.

“This is an opportunity for us to get an outside set of eyes to assist us with reaching our goals for career-based learning,” he said.

Calderone said he hopes the program and services also will help districts get grant money for increasing career planning to provide more opportunities for students.