Livingston, Montana High Schoolers Get Head Start in Career Planning

Work-Based Learning Bolsters Business, Student Success

As the labor shortage in Montana’s rural communities makes it hard for businesses to find skilled workers, towns across the state are feeling the economic pinch. It turns out the answer could solve more than one challenge.

There’s another trend creeping into the conversations of parents over coffee, guidance counselors and teachers in classrooms, and young adults amongst themselves. Young people are graduating from high school without a firm career path. And, more and more of them are leaving college, some before they earn their degree, with tens of thousands of dollars of debt.

Livingston is turning these two needs into an opportunity to expose local high school students to a range of career choices while giving the business community a chance to train future employees. The Livingston School District, the Montana Department of Labor & Industry, MSU Park County Extension, and AMB West, a local community foundation, joined together to start a Work-Based Learning Program at Park High School. It’s a hodgepodge bunch, but each group has a serious stake in making the program work.