Olive Crest Academy has a visionary purpose of preparing students to be confident adults in the ever–challenging future world of work and life. The preparation begins at the primary level of instruction and curriculum. Students are provided with real-life opportunities to practice applicable skills that will carry over to the world of work.

WORKPLACE COMPETENCIES

Effective workers can productively use:

• Resources – They know how to allocate time, money, materials, space, and staff.
  
  
• Interpersonal Skills – They can work on teams, teach others, serve customers, lead, negotiate, and work well with people from culturally diverse backgrounds.
  
  
• Information – They can acquire and evaluate data, organize and maintain files, and interpret and communicate and use computers to process information.
  
  
• Systems – They understand social, organizational, and technological systems; they can monitor and correct performance, and they can design and improve systems.
  
  
• Technology – They can select equipment and tools, apply technology to specific tasks, and maintain and troubleshoot equipment.

FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS

• Basic Skills – Reading, writing, mathematics, speaking, and listening
  
  
• Thinking Skills – The ability to learn, to reason, to think creatively, to make decisions, and to solve problems
  
  
• Personal Qualities – Individual responsibility, self-esteem, self-management, sociability, and integrity

Our Individualized Education Programs incorporate self-help skills and interpersonal skills, which outline peer and adult relationships. There is a school-wide Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) system that helps students internalize workplace competencies. Students attend computer lab with E-rate funding which teaches them an understanding of systems thinking and technology.

WorkAbility provides an array of services that are school-based and work-based. School-based vocational services include collaboration with academic instruction in basic skills, career/vocational assessments, and self-advocacy training guidance, along with counseling and career planning.

Work-based vocational services include career-awareness activities, career-exploration activities, skill development, and employment. Additionally, there is support for work-based learning opportunities, such as job search skills, job retention skills, mentors, and job coaching.

Because the vocational needs of all students vary so widely, there is a wide range of curriculum to support both workplace competencies and foundational skills. Vocational studies include computer skills, student government, writing for the world of work, oral communication, culinary arts, consumer skills, math, and vocational and career awareness.