Sept. 17, 2019

Gov. Kristi Noem is encouraging businesses to open their doors to high school sophomores next year for what she’s calling the Week of Work.

The program, coordinated through the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, will match participating students with employers that fit their interests.

The vision is that “we open up the eyes of our students and businesses to how we can partner in new ways and expose them to career opportunities and skills to make sure they can stay here and thrive and lead the nation by example in how we train our work.”

Noem toured Malloy on Monday, meeting students who began working there as early as high school and continued through school at Southeast Technical Institute.

Week of Work will be April 20-24, 2020. Students will participate in job shadows, industry tours and other business-classroom connections.

Malloy will be among the businesses participating.

“We’re really excited to be a part of it,” president Chris Houwman said. “Malloy requires an extremely skilled workforce. We have motor mechanics. We have machinists. We have people who rewind motors. We have people that are gear technicians, degreed engineers. We have over 30 degreed engineers on our staff. So many people come up and say, ‘What are you doing to get this young talent?’ Get involved.”

Businesses interested in learning more about participating can click here.

“Work-based learning works,” Noem said. “It works, and we need to put it on steroids here in the state of South Dakota.”