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Career Education Program

Pathway's Career Education Program Our students also receive instruction in the area of Career Education. During this time, students are exposed to various work experiences in the community. Listed below are some of the community work experiences that Pathway students currently take part in.

Community First:

Community First is a program that was created to expose our youngest practical academic students to the world of work in a very structured and secure environment. The students in the Community First Program intern at Christine's and Longhorn Steakhouse, at these placements they are responsible for doing table set-ups. They fill the salt and pepper shakers and ketchup bottles, fold napkins and roll silverware. Although the student's pick-up practical restaurant skills on the job, our goal is to teach these young workers basic employability skills such as: team work, communication skills and the follow through that is needed to complete a given job. It is hoped, that after their time at Christine's or Longhorn the students are ready to move up to our School-in-the-Mall Program.

School-in-the-Mall

Boscov's

This program is located at the Plymouth Meeting Mall in Boscov's. The program helps students take skills learned in the classroom into the work environment. This internship program gives students the chance to see what the working world is like within a secure, structured environment. At Boscov's, the students are under constant sight supervision of the job coach and presenting problems can be addressed immediately. Some of the skills that we target during a student's time at Boscov's are calling out sick, properly asking for time off, problems solving on the job, proper hygiene on the job, independence on the job and how to dress for success on the job.

IKEA

This is the second part of the School-In-The-Mall Program. This program takes place at IKEA, a large furniture store in Conshohocken, PA. Students make the transition from Boscov's to IKEA as they begin to demonstrate the ability to work somewhat independently of Pathway staff. At IKEA students are partnered with a coworker in one of the store departments. There is a job coach on the premises who will assist students on an as needed basis. We like to keep in mind that our priority is to have the students work with their co-workers to solve problems. Our main goal at this placement is to teach the students skills that will make them independent, well-rounded workers. Our secondary goal is to move the students from this placement with on-site job coaches to more independent, competitive, employment opportunities.

Hotel Training Program – Homewood Suites

The Homewood Suites Program was created to teach the students the skills needed to work in the hospitality industry. We also reinforce the basic employability skills they will need to survive in the world of work. This program takes place at a hotel that is local to Pathway. The students in this program work in all aspects of the hotel industry from the front desk to the maintenance department. They work with members of the staff of the hotel and they have a job coach who is on the premises but not always right at their sides. Our goal with this program is to teach independence, problem solving, team working and good communication on the job.

Internship Education

Internships are job shadowing experiences for the student who would like to learn more about a field of interest. The students in the Internship Program are nonpaid. The value of the internship program is that it enables students the opportunity to experience fields for which they have an interest but not the qualifications. A good example of an internship at Pathway is the childcare field. To be a paid employee in this field an employee must have, at least, a high school diploma. Our goals in this program are to expose students to a wide variety of potential career interests, to teach students skills needed to be successful in the world of work and to continue to help them become well-rounded members of their communities.