ASHLAND – The Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center’s decision to require students to wear “career wear” is just the latest move by the school to prepare students for life after graduation, principal Rod Cheyney said.
“This is just another thing to get these kids prepared to get out there in the workforce,” Cheyney said. “They come here. They’re going to be dressed professionally, ready to go in. We ratchet things up more than some of the others but it’s for that reason. We’re getting you ready for the real world.”
At the July 21 Career Center board meeting, the move to revise the dress code was announced by Cheyney. The school will provide two polo shirts and two pairs of pants at no cost, and will also offer the opportunity for parents to purchase more shirts and pants.
Cheyney said the school doesn’t know how much those additional items of clothing will cost yet as the district put the clothing out to bid and won’t make a final decision on what company they are buying from until Aug. 10. However, Cheney said that with the elimination of the school fees which was also announced at the meeting, he didn’t think any parents would spend more than they did in the past on school clothes and school fees.
Students in some programs, such as Health Tech, will still wear scrubs, and students in industrial or mechanical program can wear coveralls over their career wear.
Treasurer Julie Smith said at the meeting that buying two shirts and two pairs of pants for every student will cost the school around $56,400. That amount will be offset by the salary of an employee who retired whose job it was to collect student fees.
Some parents and students were concerned initially about the timing of the announcement.
“I agree we got it out there a little late, trying to get our steam together, it kind of drug on a little bit,” Cheyney said.
The principal said the school received a few negative calls the first day, but since then, all the calls have been positive.
The reason the school implemented the new dress code is in response to what they’ve heard from employers. In recent years, Cheyney said more employers have expressed concern with finding employees who have the “soft skills” – attitude, attendance, drug-free – as opposed to just having the job training.
“We’re working every day to get these kids skills in the trades, whether it be construction, automotive or health tech, and here we’ve got all these businesses coming in and saying, ‘If you can work on the soft skills, show up to work on time, stay off their cell phones, be drug free,’ Cheyney said. “We’re pushing all these certifications and the employers are saying, ‘Just give us someone we can employ. If you give us those things, we can train them.’”
“There’s a lot of jobs between Ashland, Richland and Wayne counties that need to be filled, but they just can’t find that worker,” Cheyney said.
The previous dress code will still be in force at the beginning of the school year until students can be sized for their career wear and the clothing can be ordered. Cheyney said it will probably be at least the end of September before the career wear arrives.
