Equipping students with the skills necessary to obtain high-skilled employment is top priority for Bemidji Area Schools! Through community collaboration and intentional coursework design, Bemidji Career Academies allow students the opportunity to thrive in today’s workforce and further education. 

The Bemidji Career Academies create unique learning opportunities for students and business/industry partners to collaborate and prepare the next generation of employees and community leaders. Our vision is for every student to have a pathway to succeed and thrive in our community. 

Bemidji Career Academy students will be given the opportunity to assess their skills and talents as they pertain to the world of work, build skills transferable to the workplace by taking courses specific to their chosen Career Academy, access free college courses while in high school to help prepare for higher education.

This program is a part of Bemidji High School's Career & College Readiness programming. 

The Bemidji Career Academies were founded in 2016 with the goal of creating student pathways to help connect our Lumberjacks to relevant and meaningful careers within the greater Bemidji community. Local businesses and organizations partnered with Bemidji Area Schools to create the program. Over 200+ courses at Bemidji were reviewed by an advisory board made up of educator and business partners, and formed into six unique pathways at the start. Since its inception, the program has grown to include at least fifteen academies, and as more unique pathways in our area came to light, the program shifted to focus on five broader career fields with the goal to include all of our students and their career exploration goals. 

The Bemidji area and surrounding communities have been a vital part of our program, and we are incredibly grateful for all of the businesses and organizations who have and continue to partner with us! Connecting our students to mentors in career fields in their own backyard is an invaluable resource, and we are proud to work alongside the teacher leaders in our community. Bemidji businesses have a passion for working with our students, and showing them the next steps, and we could not do this work without them. 

If you are interested in partnering with us, either through mentoring, hosting field trips, offering paid & unpaid internships, attending career fairs, or more, please contact Jenny Fraley, Career & College Counselor, at jenny_fraley@isd31.net or 218-444-1600 ext. 63326. 

If you're interested in giving financially, please use the form below.

SPONSORSHIP FORM
 

Bemidji Career Academies is also home to our Youth Skills Training (YST) coordination. Managed by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, YST offers a pathway for 16 and 17-year-old students to be employed in paid internships in five high demand career areas: advanced manufacturing, agriculture, automotive, healthcare, and information technology. For more information, see below. 

Youth Skills Training Website & Information

If you'd like to know more about becoming an approved YST partner, contact Jenny Fraley at jenny_fraley@isd31.net.

Joining an academy does not mean you are in specific academy classes. When you are in an academy, you are expressing interest in one or more career areas, and will have access to opportunities that will help you explore! You will be added to the online Google classroom, where you will see field trips, internships, job shadows, and more available to you to sign up for as it works in your schedule. 

Being in an academy also means you get some guidance in choosing your course selection to better help you determine what you want to do for the big AFTER - aka what you want to to do when you graduate. 

Your academy will show up on your schedule as class period 0. 

Not necessarily, no! All of your classes remain the same - they just fit into a different academy package depending on what you're looking at exploring. You can also take one class (like Welding, for example) that may count toward a few different academies. Just like in real life, skills and classes can cross over into multiple career options. 

You can be in as many as you'd like! We expect that you may not yet know what you want to do - and that's the whole point! If you're in more than one academy, you'll get advertisements for opportunities for each academy you are in, even if they are very different. 

ABSOLUTELY! We find often that finding out what you DON'T want to do can be just as, if not more, important than finding your "right" path! High school is a great place to sort out what your skills are, what interests you, and what you like to do, and if you change your mind, you can simply change your academy.

We have a variety of options! While taking courses that align within an academy is a great first step to exploring, here are some other opportunities for you as BHS & LHS students:

Exploring

Partnering with Scouting USA, Exploring offers monthly field trips during the school day to various sites throughout our community, where you can participate in hands-on activities and learn more about jobs and careers at those areas. Locations include Bemidji Airport, Bemidji Aviation, Beltrami County Sheriff's Office, Cease Funeral Home, Concordia Language Villages Culinary Program, Great River Rescue, Knife River Materials, Minnesota DNR, Naylor's Refrigeration & Heating, and Northwest Technical College & Mechatronics, which includes tours of Wells Technology. 

Field Trips & Guest Speakers

Your classes will also offer you many opportunities to get out into our community. Whenever you have a chance, sign up! This includes the Tour of Manufacturing each fall. We also have gone to Camp Ripley, Sanford Health, Bemidji Veteran's Home, and other locations, just to name a few! When these are posted in class or in your Google classroom, sign up! We'd love to have you! 

We also do invite guest speakers in from time to time - keep an eye out on announcements and the career academies Google classroom to see if any suit your fancy!

Job Shadows

Our counselors can help arrange one time job shadows for you at a variety of locations. These are typically a half day or full day experience, but can be flexible. If you've ever wondered "I wonder what it would be like to be a [fill in the blank], let us know and we'll find someone for you to shadow! 

Internships

Internships are a great option to explore, and you will even have room in your schedule to do this during the school day as you enter your junior year. Internships can be paid or unpaid, and are more of a long-term commitment than a job shadow. We do partner with some locations to offer paid internships to explore in healthcare, automotive technology, and manufacturing, so if you're interested in any of those areas, let us know!