DUNCAN AREA TEACHERS ON TOUR - A GREAT IDEA!

March 23, 2023

written by Steve Bratcher, Oklahoma Department of Commerce

In the past few years, I’ve had many conversations with economic development organizations where the discussion centered around how to keep young people from graduating and immediately leaving rural Oklahoma never to return.

The economic development team in Duncan organizes an event with local manufacturers and the public school system where they have over 100 teachers during a professional day tour different manufacturing companies, the local hospital, and a bank. During each tour, the different companies discussed the exact educational disciplines they were looking for, what jobs required what skills and teachers were able to interact with local businesses to collaborate. Most teachers were surprised at some point about jobs that were available in their own community.

This is a great idea because the Duncan economic development team is turning teachers into recruiters, letting rural kids know there are jobs in their own town. Retaining our young adults keeps the local workforce strong and helps stop our big cities and even other states from luring away young people from our rural Oklahoma communities.

Article featured in the 2022-2023 WORKFORCE UPDATE - READ the update HERE.

Watch our Teacher Tours Video HERE.