MNCAPS to expand pathway offerings in 2019-20 school year

Prior Lake American

The Minnesota Center for Advanced Professional Studies, a career-readiness program in the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools district, will expand its offerings for the 2019-20 school year.

The program, known as MNCAPS, began in 2016 and has four pathways: business, marketing and two in health care for students who want to become certified nursing assistants. For 2019-20, the program will be doubled with four more pathways: education, global sustainability, design and marketing, and professional selling.

“We add pathways based on student interest but also workforce demands in addition to conversations with the parents,” MNCAPS Coordinator Erik Sill said. “Parents are in the industry and know where the demands are.”

Sill said the stakeholders wanted to add career options that were not already included in classes at Prior Lake High School or in the Farmington school district, which is a partner in the program. MNCAPS also partners with local businesses to provide training, including Minnesota Mermaid in Prior Lake, Powerplay Retail in Mendota Heights and the Fountains at Hosanna in Lakeville.

“It’s trying to find the right classes that make up a pathway, teachers to be the champions of those pathways and student interest in those,” Sill said. “It’s almost like finding a capstone — a different level of interest to what they already have. They have great business classes, but what’s the next level?”

Education was added to both get students interested in education careers and bolster that workforce, Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools Assistant Superintendent Jeff Holmberg said.

“We’re always looking for great teachers and to hire Prior Lake High School graduates is certainly a great opportunity — it’s a great opportunity for us, a great opportunity for them and a way to get them invested in the community (after) being a student.”

The education pathway also allows students to get teaching experience within the district before hitting college, Holmberg said.

“By having that type of pathway in our school, we can create experiences for our high school students to work with our elementary or middle school students,” he said.

Sill said the sustainability pathway came from conversations regarding an expanding workforce dedicated to helping companies protect the environment and use more renewable energy, whereas the professional selling pathway came from conversations with parents who are in sales.

“Even if their student doesn’t pursue sales as a career, the skill set with sales is applicable to everything,” Sill said.

The design and marketing pathway was added to capture companies’ interest in people with critical thinking and creativity skills, Sill said.

“Students are able to use their creativity to add value to companies,” he said.

Students interested in any of the pathways can go to mncaps.org for more information, or talk to guidance counselors in the district. Students apply on the website and interview with Sill.

“We look for students who are socially mature, reliable and can work in groups,” Sill said. “We don’t look at GPA.”

Holmberg said MNCAPS prepares students to be successful in the workforce, no matter the career.

“The purpose of MNCAPS is that profession-based learning,” he said. “It’s really helping our students to be set up to be as successful as they possibly can be once they enter into the job force.”

MNCAPS currently has 150 students in the program but could expand to up to 250, Sill said. Enrollment for the program will be at the beginning of February 2019 and the new pathways will start in fall 2019.

“Some numbers we’re really proud of is 94 percent of our students would recommend MNCAPS to a friend and 97 percent of parents have been satisfied,” Sill said. “We build confidence in students — doesn’t matter what type of students. As long as they walk out more confident into whatever is next for them, then we’ve done our job.”