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District sites and the W/O/R/K Center for in-school and summer youth employment programs will <br />provide more than enough internship, job-shadowing, and/or employment opportunities for the <br />Success Bound! participants. <br />ELEMENT #5: Access to an effective program of occupational skills training. <br />The overall approach of the Santa Ana Unified School District's Regional Occupational Program <br />(ROP) is to maximize community resources, integrate services within the educational and business <br />communities and find new avenues to increase the level of employer involvement in the creation of <br />internships and work-based learning. Allied with this activity are the strong work-based programs and <br />the network linking of career pathways and work site experiences of the Central County's Regional <br />Occupational Program (CCROP), local WIA (Success Bound), the Chamber of Commerce, the City of <br />Santa Ana and local business and community-based organizations. The cornerstone of all of this is the <br />ROP as it is the District's vehicle for providing appropriate, timely and effective entry-level training. <br />Many ROP courses have work-based internships as part of the entry career certification programs. <br />These have been integrated into the career pathways at the high schools. Allied with the ROP <br />offerings are partnerships with Santa Ana College and local universities that enable high school <br />students (including Success Bound! participants) to participate in articulated program of sequential <br />courses from high school through college. <br />The career/technical offerings available to WIA participants include all those in offered in District and <br />ROP programs including recent additions/revisions that incorporate "green and/or STEM" elements. <br />It should be noted that by law, ROP courses can only be offered if there are documented entry-level <br />employment opportunities in the local area. A mainstay of ROP course offerings over the years has <br />been and continues to be medical and dental front and back office programs which are closely aligned <br />with STEM offerings. Another example in this area is the "Introduction to Green" course at Valley <br />HS in the ROP construction program that includes five to seven green projects. The High School Inc. <br />program also at Valley HS offers such new programs in its various academies as equipment <br />programmer, sheet metal engineer, CAD operator, mechanical engineer, radiological technician, <br />design engineer, air traffic controller, ASE automotive technician, civil engineer and materials <br />engineer that all fall into the green and/or STEM categories. <br />Selected Success Bound! participants will be guided and counseled into Regional Occupational <br />Program courses related to their career pathways as these courses can play such a pivotal role in their <br />school-to-work plan (including the green and STEM options). These classes will provide participants <br />with the means to prepare for entry-level employment, receive elective credit toward graduation, enter <br />a career pathway, sample various work site experiences, earn money for educational expenses and/or <br />verify career choices. And from a very practical point of view, the ROP Certificates will verify that a <br />program participant has indeed met his/her Skill Attainment Rate goal. <br />Operationally, ROP consists of a variety of occupational training programs that lead to entry-level job <br />skills for students age 16 and over. ROP classes, which are funded by the State, include integrated <br />classroom and work-based activities. ROP teachers are experts in their field with a minimum of five <br />years of work-based experience and a teaching credential. Of particular importance to many of the <br />Success Bound! participants is the fact that these courses are offered not only at the ROP's Ritchey <br />Center, but also on high school campuses throughout the District. Transportation is available at no <br />cost for afternoon courses. Courses are also available in the evening and on Saturdays. Participants in <br />Success Bound! will also be given priority registration for ROP courses during their time in the <br />program-including the twelve-month follow-up period. <br />19 <br />EXHIBIT A