Business alliances and high schools in Wake County have existed for several years, serving different roles in different communities. The Apex Friendship Business Alliance began around the same time that Apex Friendship High School opened its doors.
“Part of the goal of setting up the business alliance is that you always want your graduates to cross the stage knowing what options are waiting for them on the other side of the stage,” said Brian Pittman, principal of Apex Friendship High School. “You want them to have options that they’re excited about, and part of that is a ‘diploma plus.’ A diploma plus offers other opportunities so that students can figure out what it is that they want to do when they leave the school.”
A diploma plus may feature industry credentials and certifications, accolades which prepare a student for future success. With this objective in mind, the business alliance achieves multiple goals: it provides community partners which offer learning opportunities like internships and job shadowing for students, and it also serves as a healthy addition to Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses.
“Is what we’re teaching aligning with industry standards?” Pittman questioned. “Is what we’re teaching aligning with what the skillsets are that employers really want students to have when they leave our school? In many ways, the business alliance works to try to keep us grounded with that. To my knowledge, each high school, at least in Wake County, will have a business alliance. The district, as a whole, has a business alliance too that really tries to coordinate and guide some of that work as well.”
Students within the AFHS Business Alliance gravitate toward several different programs. Job shadowing, for example, allows students to explore businesses by observing someone in the community complete job tasks. Every student who participates in this opportunity while on the job site is covered by Wake County Public Schools insurance.
“Let’s say they want to be a dentist,” said Tanya Guinn, the Career Development Coordinator at Apex Friendship High School. “They go out to a dental office, and they watch what the dentist does. And they decide ‘Oh, no. I don’t want to do that.’ They may have saved themselves a lot of time in school, a lot of debt, and a lot of money if they really don’t want to do it. Finding out what they don’t want to do as well as what they do want to do is just as important.”
There are a growing number of high school students in the Wake County district that are earning industry credentials through internships and coursework while they attend high school. The Career and College Promise program plays a central role in providing this academic support, helping students enroll in courses at a community college and earn credentials toward their degree. A forthcoming Animal Science program at AFHS is a part of this initiative, allowing students to earn a vet tech certification after completing the program.
Of course, none of these opportunities would be the same without the input of industry professionals within the community; they indicate what a student may need to get hired, and where their particular interests lie when hiring new students.
“[Hiring] may be content-specific or experience-specific within that field,” said Pittman. “But a lot of our business partners are telling us that what they want students to be able to show are not necessarily industry specific skills, but some of those soft skills needed in order to collaborate with each other and be functional within that work environment. A number of business partners tell us that if someone comes to them with those skills, they can teach them exactly what they need them to do on the job.”
The activities and experiences available through the business alliance at AFHS build these soft skills, like mock interview processes provided by business partners and the Reality of Money program offered by the State Employees Credit Union—where students learn about the world of the economy. In these ways, business partners are a crucial part of the business alliance, making programs doable while simultaneously exposing students to the work world.
“A couple of other things business alliance partners do for our school is provide guest speakers who speak about their career,” said Guinn. “They’ll come into either clubs or classes and talk about how they got to where they are now—their education background, what they do each day, the pros and cons of their career, and whether they would choose their current career or something different if they had to do it over again.”
Field trips comprise an additional pathway available through the alliance, letting students explore places of business outside of AFHS, seeing what the businesses are like, and asking questions. Students can also pursue internships through the alliance, provided they take the time to find them on their own, where they can potentially be paid for interning and gain on-the-job training. Students may also get hired right after college, if the business offering the internship requires a college degree.
Juniors at AFHS participate in mock interviews every January—after taking part in resume-writing workshops—with the assistance of business volunteers like Joanna Helms. Helms is the chairperson of the Apex Friendship Business Alliance Advisory Board and the Economic Development Director of the Town of Apex, and she has been instrumental in the success of the AFHS Business Alliance. Possessing over twenty years of experience in workforce development and business recruitment, Helms has conducted mock interviews with AFHS juniors since the school opened.
Students at AFHS do not need to possess a certain GPA or take business courses to join the business alliance. Career and technical student organizations, internships, and CTE courses through the Career and College Planning program are available to any student at AFHS.
“The biggest access point to these things is not GPA,” said Pittman. “It is relationships and connections within the school building, because part of what we want to do is get students to be able to advocate for what they want. What is the experience that is meaningful to them?”
One way that students can achieve this purposeful experience is through MajorClarity, a career and college readiness platform that enables students to express their curiosity around career topics and career clusters. The ultimate objective of all these programs is helping AFHS students form relationships with classmates and faculty, so they can advocate for their future career goals.
“At seventeen years old and twenty-seven years old and forty-seven years old, knowing and getting a sense of what you don’t want to do is just as critical as figuring out exactly what you do want to do,” said Pittman. “And the only way you figure that out is by engaging in new experiences and putting yourself out there.”
Considering that AFHS is home to around 2,800 students this year, emphasizing relationships between students, giving them space to voice their opinions, and granting them opportunities to address their needs is integral to the success of every individual and their pathway toward graduation.
Future Plans for the AFHS Business Alliance
“[In December], we pulled together student leaders from across the school and asked them to look at the opportunities, courses, and internships that we offer right now [and tell us]: What else do you want? What else is important to you? What else can we grow in, as a school, in order to be sure that we’re being responsive to what you need?” said Pittman. “Getting their voice and feedback on that, periodically, is important to be sure that we’re staying as aligned with our students and what they’re interested in as we possibly can.”
For example, in addition to the Animal Science program just offered in January of 2023, there is a growing plan to provide a Certified Nursing Assistant Certification in the near future, based on student interest, and there is currently an Academy of Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing—a four-year program in which students are involved in project-based learning and STEM-oriented activities. Each student participates in an internship as part of the program.
“I think the more we can diversify the options that our students have, the greater chance that we have to really get our students engaged and build some of those relationships and connections—not only with us, but with the experts within our community—and I think that’s a good thing,” said Pittman.
Apex High School Business Alliance
Apex Friendship High School isn’t the only local school providing a business alliance for students and business partners. Apex High School has its own business alliance that features similar programs for students, where they can immerse themselves in career exploration.
Among the most popular opportunities offered by Apex High School’s business alliance companies are career fairs, job shadowing, mentoring students for advanced study projects, mock interviews, and internships.
“We have also had business alliance companies donate supplies to our school that we have used to pay it forward in the community,” said Jenean Abolins, the Apex High School Business Alliance Career Development Coordinator. “With donations from Complete Construction, Samet Corporation, and Apex Tool group, our carpentry classes are building a playhouse to donate to Habitat for Humanity.”
Field trips are arranged by organizations like North Carolina State University, Wake Technical Community College, and the Apex fire and police departments, while guest speakers from the Culinary Institute of America, Community Health and Emergency Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency visit classes to discuss prospective careers.
“Our business alliance mission is to foster career awareness among our students and to help prepare them for the important life-career decisions ahead,” said Abolins. “The career and life expertise of business leaders provides students with the relevancy between education and future careers. Through career-related events, businesses help prepare students to be future employees of Wake County. In addition to direct participation, the networking ability of our business leaders allows the alliance initiative to tap an extensive resource of talented individuals to which our students would not otherwise have access.”
So far, students cherish meeting guest speakers and having the chance to visit job sites, and these opportunities (among numerous others) would not be possible without the support of Apex High School’s 68 business alliance members. These companies have exposed students to a range of careers which they would not otherwise be able to learn about, and Apex High School looks forward to expanding their membership—offering further learning opportunities for students in Wake County and the surrounding area.
