Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) recently welcomed a group of Craven County school teachers to the depot as a part of an externship program focused on increasing student preparation for careers in industry.

Four Craven County teachers participated in the five-day long program, which allowed the teachers to immerse themselves in FRCE’s operations by touring the depot and gaining in-depth insight from individuals working in a wide range of career fields.

FRCE K-12 STEM Education Outreach Coordinator Michelle Smith said the externship showcases the depot’s many career opportunities and pathways to local teachers and, through them, area students.

“As Eastern North Carolina’s largest employer – one that is continuously growing, I might add – supporting programs such as the teacher externship is essential for FRC East,” said Smith. “Raising awareness amongst local teachers will allow them to reach more students than we ever could alone. That helps ensure we will have the skilled and motivated workforce we need to support the depot’s future workload, contribute to the community and support the fleet.”  

FRCE has participated in the Craven County teacher externship program since 2015 as a way to promote and enhance science, technology, engineering and math education in the local community. Smith said the externship sessions focus on connecting local teachers with the command’s workforce so they can develop teaching plans that support the education needed to fill the technical careers at the depot.

“This program’s intent is to provide teachers with workforce development information and strategies for local opportunities that they can then share with their students,” said Smith. “With this, teachers can set their students up for success by helping them better understand local career opportunities and paths they can take to achieve their goals.”

Innovation Lead for the Advanced Technology and Innovation Team Randall Lewis, said during their time at FRCE, the teachers toured various production and engineering areas. Lewis, who oversees the STEM Outreach Team, also said the teachers had in-depth conversations with many FRCE professionals to help them better understand the depot’s varied career opportunities.

“We want them to see all aspects of working at FRC East,” said Lewis. “We have a huge variety of jobs here and we want the educators to be well-informed when they leave. We try to maximize their time and give them exposure to everything from engineering to logistics. They get to see the production lines and engineering shops, as well as some of the other divisions such as Training, Information Technology and Cyber Security. We try to give them a complete snapshot of all that is offered at FRC East because that’s what is most beneficial for their kids when they go back.”

For many of the educators, the introduction to the variety of specialties found at FRCE was eye opening. FRCE’s workforce consists of more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers whose jobs cover a broad range of career fields.

“One of the main things I’ve seen during our time here is how many different types of jobs there are at FRC East,” said Michelle Roderick, Spanish teacher at Havelock High School. “We have visited with so many people and it’s given us an extensive overview of the organization and its many opportunities. And to know that you can be a civilian working in all these high-paying, important jobs without having to join the military is wonderful.”

Roderick also noted how the up close and personal look at the depot also provided a better understanding of the broad skill sets needed in an industry workplace such as FRCE.

“I’ve enjoyed hearing about the different skills they are looking for directly from the employees themselves,” said Roderick. “They emphasized how even though a lot of FRC East is very STEM-oriented, it’s still just as important for students to have skills outside of science, technology, engineering and math, like communication, technical writing and even public speaking.”

Desiree Jones, multi-tiered system of support teacher at Tucker Creek Middle School, said her time at FRCE is something she plans to take back to her classroom and share with her students.

“As an intervention teacher, many of my students do not end up going to college,” said Jones. “Now, we can go to our students and say hey, these are the places you can go for a career – not just a job, but a career – without having to go to college.”

Michael Leyland, media coordinator at Grover C. Fields Middle School, said the various career opportunities offered at FRCE gave him hope for his students’ futures.

“There are so many opportunities here for different types of people with different skill sets,” said Leyland. “Now that we have been exposed to all that FRC East has to offer, we can share what we have seen and learned about jobs and career pathways with our students. I think there’s power and hope in that.”

Smith said FRCE’s participation in the externship program is just one example of the depot’s extensive STEM education and outreach efforts, all of which focus on engaging, inspiring and educating students from Eastern North Carolina, while also highlighting the wide range of career opportunities available at FRCE.

“Not everyone knows about FRC East,” said Smith. “People may know someone who works here but they often don’t know what we do here. Outreach efforts like the teacher externship have allowed us to change that by speaking directly with our community. The work the depot does is important, so we want to make sure people know who we are and what we do. By keeping local students interested and involved, we hope they’ll consider joining the FRC East team when they start choosing their career paths.”

Lewis explained that the command is continuously expanding its outreach efforts as they have proven to produce positive results for FRCE.

“Our education and outreach program is constantly growing and evolving, and it’s exciting,” said Lewis. “The program’s growth allows us to build and maintain our quality workforce, and effectively support the warfighter. It takes effort but, in the end, it’s worth it when we see students who visited us years back in high school working in our labs or on our production lines.

“It’s all about the future and being able to grow a high-quality workforce of students interested in living and working in Eastern North Carolina,” Lewis continued. “We want students that are interested to know there is a potential career for them here in Eastern North Carolina.”

This "FRCE Helps Local Educators Prepare Students for Careers in Industry" was originally found on https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Term/3087/