ROCKVILLE, MD—WorkSource Montgomery, Inc. (WSM) welcomed 20 new MoCo CAP Career Coaches, which fully staffs the innovative college and career readiness initiative aimed at bettering the prospects of Montgomery County’s youth.
The group joins the existing Career Coaches who began working with Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) middle, high, and special school students in January 2024. These new Coaches include one existing WSM employee and several who have experience working with young people with special needs.
Reflecting the diversity of Montgomery County, more than half of the new Coaches are bilingual. Collectively, the Coaches speak Spanish, multiple Chinese dialects, Swahili, Arabic, Oromo, Amharic, French, Creole, German, Polish, and Russian, among other languages.
“This new cohort of Career Coaches joins a group which has been hard at work introducing the MoCo CAP program to the MCPS community,” WSM Executive Director Anthony Featherstone said. “With a complete team on board, the initiative can now go full force with helping students understand how to connect their individual strengths, interests, values, and goals to the workforce opportunities they will face after graduation.
“As I look at our diverse group of MoCo CAP Career Coaches, it makes me even more excited about the future of the initiative and the difference it will make for our local economy in the coming years.”
This new group of Coaches will be assigned to the remaining MCPS high schools not previously served by MoCo CAP and begin delivering services to students before the end of the current school year. Ultimately, nearly 90,000 students will be reached throughout Montgomery County.
Each MoCo CAP Career Coach is also enrolled in WorkSource Montgomery’s registered apprenticeship program for career advising, the first of its kind in the state.
The yearlong program includes training through partners MCPS, Montgomery College, Educators Cooperative, and USG. When Career Coaches complete the program, they will receive a certification from MC and a Certificate of Journey-level status from the US Department of Labor, a recognized, portable national credential.