CareerWise Colorado holds first ever signing day

Career Wise Colorado held their first ever signing day for high school students.

It's an organization who's mission is to give our youth opportunities to get hands on training that will prepare them for the work force.

This means that the dozen students who signed, will get a chance to earn college credits, and it's going to help prepare the future workers of Colorado.

"This is not philanthropy, it's building the future workforce for Colorado," said Noel Ginsburg who is the CEO of CareerWise.

May 20th marks the first apprenticeship signing day for local students.

Career wise is giving the young learners a chance to gain basic skills in four different industries.

"Advanced manufacturing, information technology, business services, and banking and finance," said Ginsburg.

Colby Dunn is going the manufacturing route. It's something that he's passionate about.

"I'm going to be learning skills that I will learn in the future and use in the future. And take it all in and realize what I'm going to do in the adult life," Dunn explained.

The students will spend part of their week in the classroom, and the other part at their apprenticeship.

"So they're getting the theory in the classroom and the practice in the business doing productive work," Ginsburg added.

Governor John Hickenlooper is a fan of this concept, getting real world work while still in high school.

"In the old way, we would take kids, educate them all to the same pattern and hope they can fit in somewhere with a company," the governor said.

With this way of educating, he says it will help our economy in the long run.

"We're competing with every other state, we're trying to get these companies and these jobs in our state, we have to make sure our kids are ready," said Hickenlooper.

The students that signed are going to be a part of the pilot program for Career Wise Colorado. All of them signed on with local businesses right here in the Grand Valley.

Governor John Hickenlooper also met with the Grand Junction Economic Partnership to sign a bill to extend the Colorado Economic Development Commission. This approves loans and grants from the economic development fund to public and private entities throughout the state.

Career Wise Colorado will be expanding the apprenticeships they offer next year. they plan on adding on healthcare to their list.