Walmart Presents Kids in Detroit With Hope Through Change

AOL reports that Walmart stores and Detroit Public Schools Schools have teamed up to “offer students a for-credit after-school class that teaches job-readiness.” For a city that has been hit by a 50 percent unemployment rate and shrinking tax base, this partnership presents students with an opportunity to learn from America’s  largest private employer.

This type of class is often called “School-to-Work” and is part of Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs (formerly called Vocational Education) across the nation.

Helping students develop skills even in a discount store/chain such as Walmart has great transferability to life beyond high school as they can learn from actual practitioners about many facets of the economic process in one location. Like any course if it is constructed well and academic subjects like math and English are integrated into the curriculum students will see a real-life application of their studies as applied in a business environment.

The greatest disadvantage of any course, not simply the one referred to here, is that if it’s not designed and taught well, it is a waste of both school resources and student time.

However, courses like these offer an opportunity to expose students to not simply learning to be a cashier or warehouse stocker but they can also discover how complex an organization like a discount retail store really is while garnering an understanding of the organization’s dynamics, operational store management, and interpersonal communication skills between co-workers and customers.

Walmart is presenting students in Detroit area public schools with hope through change that is both practical and provides actual coin in their pockets.