Our Vision – To be the premier Center of Career Technical Education for Central Virginia’s alternative learners and students with disabilities while strengthening our workforce.
Our Commitment – To ensure alternative learners and students with disabilities have viable and sustainable career skills that will create opportunities for self-sustainability long-term positive contributions to our communities.
In our Career Preparation Programs, students develop the skills necessary to search for and to attain employment. Students develop resumes, rehearse job interviews, and practice job searches. Also, professional communication and conduct is strongly emphasized. Students practice appropriate social conversations at work, discuss bullying and harassment in the workplace, and role pay scenarios involving self-advocacy with colleagues and supervisors.
On our website you can see the many different ways the career academy works with students. Public School, Private, Homeschool, College- there are many ways to take advantage of this program. You can read more here.
In Addition, Northstar Academy offers:
Advisory Classes – Northstar Career Academy provides instruction in professional skills. We refer to this portion of our program as “advisory”. Advisory instruction includes topics such as hygiene, verbal communication, problem-solving on the job, social skills on the job, conflict-resolution, goal-setting, and self-management. We will spend time on Fridays engaging in instructional activities designed to build these skills. Students will continue to receive feedback and support concerning these skills as they practice the strategies they learn the remainder of the week. Advisory is the time that we will be working with students to plan their exit from this program and the next steps that they will take in their professional lives. Career Academy uses program-wide themes and activities for advisory are individualized to meet the needs of the students in this class, including needs identified by their IEP or IAP.
Worksite Experience – Our students learn and grow best through a combination of classroom instruction and community-based work experiences. This allows students to learn challenging, multi-faceted new skills and then practice applying them in the context of a working business or community organization. Classes spend time at worksites practicing the professional and technical skills they have been learning in the classroom. This also allows them to build a professional network of contacts that they can use when their job search begins.
Over the course of Career Academy’s program, we have developed over 40 business partnerships with whom we implement this portion of the program. We work closely with these employers to match our student learning needs with our partners’ opportunities for improved efficiency. We use these conversations to develop the most optimal experiences for our students’ individual needs as possible.
You can call us or email us at any time for more info. You can also request a tour here.