Nampa Schools Keep Talent Pipeline Flowing

Nampa School District

Students in the Nampa, ID, region can rest easy knowing they are well prepared for career success. 

The region’s public, private and charter schools play a pivotal role in preparing students for their future careers, teaching skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and communication, as well as offering guidance and exposure to multiple pathways. Also, Nampa schools facilitate hands-on experiences, internships and extracurricular activities that allow students to discover new interests and apply knowledge to real-world problems. 

At the heart of the Nampa School District’s career readiness strategy is the Nampa School District’s Idaho Center for Advanced Technology (ICAT), which offers career and technical education (CTE) courses in 29 different in-demand career pathways, including welding, culinary arts, health care, manufacturing and IT. 

ICAT programs are physically housed within the school district’s three high schools, and students are able to go back and forth between the campuses to take the courses. Many of the courses are dual enrollment and earn students college credits should they decide to pursue higher education. Students can also earn certifications in fields such as certified nursing assistant that enable them to immediately enter the workforce. 

“We also try to provide industry experience through internships,” says Cindy Arnzen, ICAT director. “For example, our health pathways, such as CNA, pharmacy tech and EMT, all require students to complete clinical or internship hours. This is valuable hands-on experience.” 

Recently, the district partnered with the city to establish Nampa IGNITE, a job-shadow event to expose students to local careers. 

“It was kind of an ‘aha’ moment for some of our kids to actually realize that we have all of these businesses in the Nampa area,” Arnzen says. “The goal was to connect kids to an industry person who they could go to for advice or if they were struggling with career decisions. We also wanted our students to have a ready-made mentor once they got out into the workforce.” 

Nampa Schools Enjoy Powerful Partnerships

“Each of our pathways has a technical advisory committee board, and these industry partners work with the high school teachers to make sure we are teaching what industry needs students to learn,” she says. “We also have some of our industry partners come in and be guest speakers and talk to our students about what type of career opportunities are out there.”

One such industry partner is Clint Whitehead, president of Western Trailers, manufacturer of agricultural, platform, refuse and forest trailers. Whitehead hosts student welding competitions at the high schools and talks to students about career opportunities at companies like his.

Whitehead says he became involved with the program after touring some of the ICAT classrooms and being impressed by the hands-on training students receive.

“I was just blown away. I mean they literally are training people for the workforce, and they make it convenient for the students to attend these classes and still be in school with their other friends,” he says. “They have an EMT program with an actual ambulance in the classroom, so when students graduate, they’re ready to drive an ambulance. The nursing program has hospital beds and all the equipment that a hospital room has; the dental class is set up like a dentist’s office with dental chairs and dental tools. These classrooms mimic the trades the students are training for. They have a culinary class that makes so much money that the accounting class does the books for it.”

Whitehead says his company hires students to work part time during the summer, and upon graduation, often hires them full time.

“This summer, we had seven to 10 students working at least 20 hours a week in our welding program. Every summer, we have from five to 15 student workers, and we usually get two or three full-time employees out of each group,” he says.

“We’d rather hire someone that has some experience and then train them to be a long-term employee for us. They’re going to make more money in the long run if they just come in and get to work and start putting money in retirement and work their way up through the company.”

Charting Courses for a Bright Future

Idaho Arts Charter School, a free public school in Nampa, serves more than 1,000 students in grades pre-K through 12 and focuses on fusing a traditional core curriculum with visual and performing arts. High school students can choose from courses, such as choreography and dance theory, mariachi ensemble, sculpture and studio art. 

The school also offers career and technical education courses, including culinary arts and engineering design, and a dual enrollment program enables students to earn college credit. 

Pathways in Education, a public charter high school serving at-risk and disadvantaged students, prepares them for success through experiential learning. Students take field trips to learn about politics, sustainability and leadership. The school also sponsors college tours. 

An Early Start to Entrepreneurship

Nampa is home to born entrepreneurs, and a new Kid Business Fair helps highlight the city’s smallest businesspeople. Founded by Paul Dille and his sons, 8-year-old Brooks and 6-year-old Nixon, the Kid Business Fair teaches children about entrepreneurism and gives them a platform to put that knowledge to practice by selling their wares, which range from cotton candy to squishy toys to photography.

“One of my sons sold concrete pots, which was actually a pretty good business. We bought some forms online, and we bought concrete and mixed it and made the pots. Then we visited a horticulturist, and my son learned all about succulents. We bought succulents and potted them, and he sold the potted plants at the fair,” says Dille, who adds that the idea came from a friend’s daughter’s T-shirt that read “I am an entrepreneur.”

“She had participated in one of these fairs in Utah, and she just lit up when I was asking her about it. We didn’t have anything like that in Idaho, and seeing how excited she was, I wanted the same experience for my kids. So I said if there isn’t one, we’ll just start one ourselves,” he says.

Dille says he’s always had an entrepreneurial spirit and wanted to share that with his sons and other children.

“Today, the norm has become you graduate from high school, you go to college, you get a job. But there are multiple ways that people can earn a living and it’s good to expose kids to those different options,” Dille says. “There are kids who participated in this fair who had a really good experience, and there are some who said, ‘Selling stuff isn’t for me.’ We just want them to see there are plenty of options.”