Open Doors Advisory Committee

Open Doors

The Open Doors Project: closing the gaps between students and employers for experiential learning opportunities.

Open Doors will be a campaign and online platform that will identify employers that have the interest and capacity to welcome students for placement, coop or experiential learning opportunities, and/or who can make themselves available for presentations, tours, or informative interviews. This platform will streamline coop exploration by standardizing experiential learning opportunity profiles, connecting students with a peer mentor in their career of interest, and building a campaign to highlight employer engagement and commitment.

The Open Doors Advisory Committee is comprised of students, employers, and educators that represent our four local school boards, various lived experiences, industries, and communities across Windsor and Essex County. A more detailed Committee Overview can be found below, but if you are interested in joining the Committee, please complete this short questionnaire to register. We value your time, and recognize important roles that you play in your schools and organizations, and so the Committee will meet 5 times over the course of the next year for approximately 1 hour each time.

Together, we have the power to contribute to students’ social and professional capital and inform them of education and employment pathways at the secondary level and beyond so that they may contribute to a strong, informed, and sustainable workforce.

Committee Overview

Open Doors Advisory Committee Overview July 2023

Description:

An Advisory Committee comprised of students, employers, and educators that represent four local school boards, various lived experiences, various industries, and communities across Windsor and Essex County.

Vision:

By the end of the current funding period (May 2024), Open Doors will be an established platform that engages students and employers from across Windsor-Essex in an effort to highlight experiential learning opportunities for youth.

Goals:

Ensure that individuals with lived experience have the opportunity to provide feedback and guidance throughout project planning, evaluation, and promotion.
Support the development of an incentive program for students, educators and employers who wish to be visible in the community and nominated for awards that shine the light on contributions of employers, educators, and students.
Provide consistent opportunity for community collaboration.

Member Roles:

To advise and share input on the work of Workforce WindsorEssex staff during the creation of the Open Doors campaign.
Share experience as an educator, student, or employer and barriers in experiential learning opportunities for students, educators and employers.
Champion Open Doors as a mechanism to support employers, youth, and their educators in finding experiential learning opportunities.
Offer feedback on the development of a digital platform that allows students, parents, and educators to access real-time cooperative learning opportunities, tour destinations and industry representatives.

Structure:

The Open Doors Advisory Committee meetings will begin with a project update presentation from Workforce WindsorEssex staff, followed by a proposed question or issue to be discussed with the group, and then a roundtable discussion of thoughts from the committee. The Open Doors Advisory Committee will be a roundtable structure, allowing a moderated and organized conversation for thoughts and feedback. A roundtable structure will allow committee members to equally participate in discussions.