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Great Lakes Dental Talks with SLHS Students about Dental Health Careers

Dr. Pollard from Great Lakes Dental and University of Iowa's dentistry student, Alyssa Siegrist, talked with SLHS students about careers within the dental health field today, including: dentists, laboratory technicians, dental hygienists and dental assistants. 

There are many benefits of pursuing dental health careers, specifically dentistry. Dr. Pollard highlighted dentistry's great job outlook, no required residency, respectable salary (i.e. $80-100K) and flexible hours. 

While majoring in pre-dentistry is an option for an undergraduate major, both Dr.Pollard and Alyssa discussed the ability to concentrate on something much different (e.g. Alyssa majored in nutrition/dietetics, Dr.Pollard's dentist son majored in Business Administration); however, many dentistry students choose to study a science related major, such as Biology or Physiology. Students have to attend four years of dentistry school once graduated with an undergraduate degree, totaling eight years of post-secondary education. 

How do you know if dentistry is right for you? Dr. Pollard recommends taking as many science classes as possible and encourages student to job shadow! 

For more information about dental health careers or setting up a job shadow with Dr. Pollard, please see me! 

Everyone Wins in a Globally Competitive Workforce

National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC): A Common Language to Improve the Quality of the Workforce

According to Skilled Iowa, the NCRC evaluates and validates the skill sets and competencies essential for a globally competitive workforce across a range of industries.
*Business and industry leaders know exactly what foundational skills they need for a productive workforce-and can easily communicate their needs
*Individuals understand what skills are required by employers-and ow to prepare themselves for success
*Educators close the skills gap using tools aligned with career pathways
*Economic developers use an on-demand reporting tool to market the quality of the workforce

The NCRC is comprised of three WorkKeys assessments: Applied Mathematics, Locating Information and Reading for Information. These assessments measure "real world" skills, essential building blocks of knowledge linked to job success. Based on the scores from these assessments, an individual can earn one of four levels of certification: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. To identify careers aligned with specific certification levels, go here.

SLHS freshmen will be taking the WorkKeys assessments on Tuesday, October 22nd. SLHS seniors will be taking the WorkKeys assessments in the spring.

Should you have further questions or comments, please direct them to myself or Brock Holman.

More to come...