Business Advisory Council Joint Statement

2023-2024 School Year

 

The Apollo Career Center represents all Allen County public schools and is the representative agency for the Business Advisory Council.  The following schools are represented: 

 

Apollo Career Center | Allen County ESC | Allen East Local Schools | Bath Local Schools  | Bluffton Exempted Village Schools

Delphos City Schools | Elida Local Schools | Lima City Schools | Perry Local Schools

Shawnee Local  Schools | Spencerville Local Schools

 

The Business Advisory Council (BAC) has superintendent representatives from each school district listed above. 

 

Our plans include:

 

  1. We will continue to support the Makerfest Event. This event was a success as business and industry leaders interacted with over 1300 freshmen or sophomore students from the region. The 2024 event is scheduled for October 10-11, 2024, at the Allen County Fairgrounds. The Allen Economic Development Group is the leading organization for this event with significant assistance from the BAC. More information can be found at: https://makerfestevent.com/
  2. We want to continue to promote networking between school and business officials. Our approach will be for individual businesses to get in front of superintendents and school personnel. The most recent event of this type was held in January 2024 when representatives from the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 776 spoke to our group. 
  3. The BAC is working with the Allen County Educational Service Center to host its third annual college fair on March 26, 2024.  
  4. We have scheduled a BAC tour of GROB Systems, a large employer in the area. 
  5. In the spring of 2023 we held a week-long educator bootcamp where 15 educators from the region learned about business, industry and economic development. The bootcamp will be held again in the spring of 2024.
  6. The BAC is supporting a job fair sponsored by OhioMeansJobs of Allen County.  This is scheduled to take place on May 7, 2024, and will be the second countywide job fair that the BAC supports with respect to communication and facilitation.
  7. The steering committee will continue to work towards developing effective/beneficial activities and will continue to consider other initiatives that may be beneficial to the Business Advisory Council.
  8. The primary contact for the BAC is Keith Horner who can be reached at Apollo Career Center.
 

Business Advisory Council Joint Statement

2022-2023 School Year

 

The Apollo Career Center represents all Allen County public schools and is the representative agency for the Business Advisory Council.  The following schools are represented: 

 

Apollo Career Center | Allen County ESC | Allen East Local Schools | Bath Local Schools  | Bluffton Exempted Village Schools

Delphos City Schools | Elida Local Schools | Lima City Schools | Perry Local Schools

Shawnee Local Schools | Spencerville Local Schools

 

The Business Advisory Council (BAC) has superintendent representatives from each school district listed above. 

 

Our plans include:

 

  1. Our primary objective this year is to support the planning of the MakerFest event. MakerFest was historically a career exposition with contests focused on juniors and seniors. This event brought in more than 1,400 students to meet and interact with various businesses.  COVID-19 eliminated MakerFest and the sponsoring organization has now handed the duties over to representatives from the Allen Economic Development Group (AEDG), our countywide economic development organization.  Our BAC will be heavily involved in this initiative.  The new MakerFest is scheduled for October 12-13, 2023.  The event will focus on freshman and sophomore students from all the schools listed above in addition to other regional schools. The event focus will be on hands-on activities for the participants. 

  2. We want to continue to promote networking between school and business officials.  Our new approach will be for individual businesses to get in front of superintendents and school personnel.  The first attempt was on February 1, 2023, when representatives from Procter and Gamble spoke to our group.  We will continue to try to develop these meetings. 

  3. The BAC is working with the Allen County Educational Service Center to host its second annual college fair on March 8, 2023.  

  4. We have scheduled a superintendents-only tour on March 31 with Nutrien, a large employer in the area. 

  5. We have scheduled a 1-day educator boot camp on April 27th with two local industries. 

  6. The BAC is supporting a job fair sponsored by OhioMeansJobs of Allen County.  This is scheduled to take place on May 9, 2023, and will be the second countywide job fair that the BAC supports with respect to communication and facilitation. 

  7. We are attempting to schedule a week-long educator boot camp for the summer of 2023. With the support and assistance from the Lt. Governor’s office, 15 educators will be able to earn college credit for taking part in this initiative. 

  8. The steering committee will continue to work towards developing effective/beneficial activities and will continue to consider other initiatives that may be beneficial to the Business Advisory Council.

 

 

Business Advisory Council Joint Statement 

2021-22 School Year 

The Apollo Career Center represents all Allen County public schools and is the representative  agency for the Business Advisory Council. 

The Business Advisory Council is composed of two groups: an at-large group and a steering  committee. The at-large group held a meeting on June 15, 2021 and has a meeting scheduled for  June 7, 2022. The steering committee held meetings on August 11, September 29, January 26 and  has a meeting scheduled for April 27, 2022. 

Our plans include: 

1. Creating a resource for school systems which represents business interests and the ability for  businesses to come into schools to speak with students, take on internships, offer job  shadow opportunities, and other items. 

2. We organized a job fair, which is scheduled for May 10, 2022. 

3. We want to continue to promote networking between school and business officials. A  networking session is scheduled for June 9, 2022. 

4. The steering committee will continue to work towards developing effective/beneficial  activities and will continue to consider other initiatives that may be beneficial to the Business  Advisory Council.