Partnering with business and industry to help educate students about career options may sound like an ambitious task that would strain teachers' after-hours leisure time or extra-curricular activities. It's not so. When I began my work at SouthEast Career Center in Columbus, Ohio, in 1976, my partner and I were seeking to connect electricity students with electrical contractors. As former electricians, we first exhausted all our personal contacts, and then devised a strategy that was ingenious in its simplicity. We consulted the Yellow Pages and began calling on electrical contractors to inform them of our program and recommend our students for mentoring and internship programs. We also attended and hosted electrical contractors' organization meetings. Soon enough, the program itself obtained a reputation among those in the industry, and we began to be on the receiving end of the calls.

There are many ways to involve area businesses in the educational process, and it is beneficial to both businesses and students to do so. Businesses in Columbus, for example, are eager to find qualified job candidates. There are currently more jobs than there are qualified applicants to fill them. Students, too, benefit, by being exposed to the light at the end of the tunnel. Too often, students consider high school a means only to getting into college. While that is an important function of our high schools, it is equally valuable to educate students about alternatives to college - one of which is immediately entering the workforce on a part-time or full-time basis. To do so, and to rise through the ranks of leadership and pay on the job, it is wise for students to first obtain a high school diploma. While we teachers have made this point until we're blue in the face, it may carry more weight when it comes from someone in the business community.

We have initiated a number of activities to involve businesses and students here in Columbus. It's important to provide businesses with a variety of programs that they can become involved with, so that there is an option for them that matches the time and resources they can devote.

This year, we launched a pilot program called "Let's Start a Career." Sponsored by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce, the program's focus is a one-day mini-career day in which area businesses meet with senior students to discuss career options and collect resumes and job applications. To prepare students, we offer classes in writing resumes, completing job applications and or developing interviewing skills.

Business representatives from transportation and distribution, retail, food service and hospitality, business and office, construction and health care will then meet with our seniors to discuss career opportunities.

We've also coordinated a speakers' bureau, inviting business representatives into the classrooms to talk with students in the ninth grade about careers, wages, responsibilities and the kinds of things they should be doing now to prepare themselves for the job market. It's not too early for them to focus on their grades, attendance, attitude, dependability and commitment. From time to time we've arranged for these students and even those in the 7th and 8th grades to visit a work site for a first-hand look at what it would be like to hold a particular job.

Mentoring or shadowing is another way to involve businesses. This involves arranging for a student to "shadow" someone at a company two or three times a year. Spending time with the employee throughout their day helps students gain an understanding of what skills a job requires, how to interact with peers and supervisors and how to problem-solve if a situation requires it.

We need business and industry's help in conveying the message that it's cool to stay in school and that it will make a difference between a good-paying job that provides growth and advancement versus a minimum-wage job that may seem appealing before graduation, but leads to no growth in skills or experience and no significant wage increase.

The more businesses get involved, the lower the drop-out rate will be. Often, students drop out because they think, "If I'm not going to college, why should I stay in high school?" We need to work with businesses to help make students aware that college is not for everybody. It is an option, but not the only choice.

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Burton S. Feldman, who participated in the Columbus "What's Up in Factories?" workshop, is a Student Career Options Specialist for Eastmoor High School and Eastmoor and Johnson Park Middle Schools in Columbus, Ohio. He is an electrician and former vo-tech teacher, who entered college when he was in his 30s. He has a bachelor's degree in vocational technical education from Ohio State University. Mr. Feldman also works as a training consultant for Ace Hardware and is a teacher trainer for the National Training Fund.