Launched in 2017, the vision for CareerTEK was to provide youth with career development opportunities around in-demand careers. The center, located in a 4,000 square foot space in the Ironworks complex, sought to partner with the School District of Beloit, the Stateline Boys & Girls Club, the Greater Beloit Chamber of Commerce, and local businesses to help young people build the knowledge and real-world skills they would need to enter the local workforce.

Fast forward eight years and CareerTEK has brought the vision to life, serving as a hands-on career exploration launch pad for 6-8 th graders and an experiential learning center providing career preparation training opportunities for local high school students. CareerTEK now serves more than 1,600 Stateline area students annually. The original vision to partner primarily in Beloit has expanded to include relationships throughout the greater Rock County and Stateline area.

CareerTEK currently partners with 12 local school districts as well as a robust local homeschool network. Activities are structured to meet the needs of stakeholders and include such offerings as:

• Career-focused speakers, speaker panels and mock interviews
• Hands-on, school day career exploration activities
• Coordinating job shadows and internships
• Delivering exploratory and elective courses for local schools
• Offering high school level certification courses

In addition, CareerTEK hosts a monthly convening during the school year of local Career and Tech Ed (CTE) educators to share information, collaborate and plan, or learn about topics impacting their work.

The ability to be a bridge between education and local businesses has also contributed significantly to CareerTEK’s growth. CareerTEK works with more than 100 higher education and local business organizations annually, with experts from those businesses and schools leading industry specific school day and afterschool awareness and exploration activities, certification programs and supporting job shadows, internships or employment placements.

Demand for programming is strong, with consistent waitlists for middle school afterschool programming and middle and high school summer academies. In-center

daytime programming requests are on the rise and middle school students are more frequently looking for additional opportunities to remain engaged with the program in a variety of career pathways as they move into high school.

In 2022, renovation of additional lab space tailored to construction and innovation programming almost doubled the size of the current center and yet the use of the space is already at capacity. As a result, the program is currently exploring the possibility of a larger space that will facilitate an expansion of current programming and provide opportunities for future growth.

The Hendricks Family Foundation recently approved a budget of up to $1 million for 2026 CareerTEK operations.

CareerTEK is well-positioned to continue its current trajectory, growing into the future providing meaningful career awareness, exploration, preparation and training for Stateline area youth. We look forward to seeing where they grow next!