Valley Rubber, LLC, a partner in education business, hired Horizon Point Consulting, Inc., to provide every high school senior at Falkville High School in Falkville, Alabama, with a 45-minute one-on-one career coaching session with a Certified Career Development Facilitator (CDF). That was four years ago.  Now, because of the success seen in the program and Valley Rubber’s commitment to workforce development and education, Horizon Point coaches work one-on-one with every student (9th-12th grade) at the school.   

This project was designed to help students know themselves and help them determine appropriate plans post-graduation. The expansion of services has included goal setting, soft skills, ACT prep, and college application/scholarship assistance.

Tremendous results can be seen through the coaching:

• Sixty-one percent (61%) of students indicated an interest in a career field that is in-demand in the area. This is up 3% from the previous year with a cumulative increase of 15%.
• Valley Rubber awarded 29 scholarships to seniors, which is 58% of the class. This increase in scholarships is consistent with the trend with an increase in overall scholarships awarded. In 2015, it was noted that Falkville High School seniors were offered more scholarships than ever before. In 2016, scholarship monies in excess of 1.1 million were awarded.
• Positive feedback from job shadowing experiences from both the student and employer perspective has been realized.  For example, post job shadow, one student cited it as a “great experience” that helped shape her plans to become a mechanical engineer.

We accomplished these results through this process:

With continued coaching at Falkville High School, Horizon Point will track success of students by recording increases in ACT scores, scholarships awarded and selection of careers that are in-demand.