Union County Schools is looking for more than one hundred good volunteers.

The district is reaching out to the public to pull off the community-based career and college advising initiative Operation Preparation.

Operation Preparation is designed to prepare students for post-secondary education or the work force. Only 38 percent of Kentucky's high school students are ready for these next steps, but the state's Department of Education has set a goal to see that number rise to 50 percent by 2015.

Districts throughout the state have pledged to help make this goal a reality-Union County's Board members signed the Career and College Readiness pledge during a 2011 Board meeting. Operation Preparation is one way the district is working toward fulfilling that pledge.

The Operation Preparation initiative calls for volunteers to speak to all the district's 8th and 10th grade students in one-on-one advising sessions that last for about 20 minutes. If a volunteer gives at least one hour of their time, he or she will be able to advise three students. With nearly 400 students in the 8th and 10th grades, UCPS is looking for about 120 volunteers to serve as a one-time advisor to the students during the week of March 12-15th.

Community advisers will speak with students about their career aspirations and required education or training for those jobs. The volunteers will also tell the students if they are on the right path to meet those goals.

All volunteers must submit a background check, sign non-disclosure/confidentiality forms, and complete a 30-minute online training course before they can advise students.

Due to time constraints of the time required to process background checks at the state level, the district is asking that volunteers sign up immediately if they would like to be a part of Operation Preparation. A sign-up form/packet is available at the link on the top of this news article.
For more information about Operation Preparation, contact Malinda Beauchamp at 389-1694.