What skills most needed by young adults entering the professional world are most commonly lacking once they’ve celebrated their high school graduation? What are the big mistakes to avoid during a job interview, or the first day on a new job? How can you be a better member of a team, and set yourself up for long-term professional success?

Students from Mt. Hope High School and the Highlander Charter School listened intently, and interjected their own opinions, at a series of roundtable conversations held at the Palmer River Grille in Warren last week during a think tank event organized in collaboration with the East Bay Chamber of Commerce and the two participating high schools.

Commerce leaders from throughout the region — representing a wide range of industries including business, accounting, property management, computer science, retail and manufacturing — sat with students to chat in short-burst sessions regarding how schools and businesses can better work together to prepare students for success once they enter the workforce.

“Take a look around the room,” said Nicole Lyons, College and Career Coordinator at Mt. Hope High School, who led the event. “There are a lot of different industries, but there’s two things in common. We all believe in the power of our community…And we also believe in the untapped potential of our students.”

The activity centered around the creation of idea boards, where participants brainstormed and answered prompts using sticky notes and then passed their posters around. Ideas that students and business leaders “liked” and agreed with received stickers, while they added any new ideas from their table to the poster. By the end, each poster had a full swath of sticky notes with large patches of green throughout.

Soft skills a strong focus

An interesting conversation held at one table, which featured Mt. Hope Principal Deb DiBiase and Rick Grundy, President and COO of AVTECH Software in Warren, revolved around the limitations of internships. Grundy believed that, while internships can be invaluable for the few individuals who are able to access them, having business leaders come into the classroom to provide an overview of the job and their products — for example, from his company, sophisticated sensor technology that can detect environmental hazards — might spark the interest of more students who may not otherwise get exposure to that sort of activity.

Other topics included the importance of emphasizing soft skills, such as learning proper workplace etiquette.

“Something as simple as not bringing fast food into the workplace,” said Michelle Hughes, Chairwoman of the East Bay Chamber of Commerce and a Warren-based CPA, while speaking with Olivia Labonte, a Mount Hope High School student.

“I think more students need to be comfortable with risk taking,” added Chris Vitale, Economic Development Coordinator for the Town of Bristol, talking about how learning how to fail can be just as valuable as learning to succeed.

Labonte mentioned that having a class where various career-related skills, such as doing taxes, learning how to apply for a mortgage, and gaining a better sense of financial literacy, would be well-received by students.

“I think a majority of students would want to take those steps,” she said.

Peter King, President & CEO of Waterrower in Warren, spoke about how the right attitude can be just as important as learning the skills of a job.

“A business is a collection of people, it’s not a logo or someone sitting in a corner office,” he said. “Be humble enough to know that you’re part of a team.”

Once the sessions wrapped up, Lyons said that the data would be gathered from the idea boards and consolidated in order to take meaningful steps forward within the schools. She said that they hope to hold these types of sessions each fall and spring going forward.

Business leaders across the room universally felt the event was a worthwhile endeavor.

“It was absolutely fabulous. It was wonderful to hear what the students had to say and then they could learn what we needed in our businesses,” Hughes said. “I think a lot of good is going to come from this.”