KET was among 12 PBS stations recently selected to participate in a new federal education project that aims to help young children build the vital skills they need to succeed in school and life.
The Learn Together: Connecting Children’s Media and Learning Environments to Build Key Skills for Success initiative will help create new educational content and host local community engagement events that foster children’s literacy, critical thinking and collaboration skills. It also seeks to show children, in age-appropriate ways, how their interests could lead to a fulfilling career.
Stations participating in the initial phase of the five-year plan will work with community partners to develop educational content on a variety of platforms to meet the early learning needs of children, particularly those in low-income communities.
The project is spearheaded by PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and funded through a Ready To Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education. KET has participated in previous cycles of the Ready to Learn initiative, resulting in the development of a variety of engaging early learning resources as well as numerous community events.
“We are very proud to again be part of this national project and continued investment in early childhood learning for families in Kentucky,” said Shae Hopkins, KET’s president and CEO. “Building on our commitment and service to our youngest citizens, this funding will help expand our highly utilized educational resources for children, families and educators.”
One of the key components will include real-life examples of career pathways, with adult role models offering examples of how they turned their childhood interests into their life’s work. Given the rapidly evolving global economy, the initiative seeks to introduce children to the mindsets, knowledge and skills that will help them successfully find their way, even in the face of an uncertain future.
“The emphasis on introducing young children to the necessary critical thinking, collaboration and ‘world of work’ skills is particularly exciting,” said Tonya Crum, KET’s senior director of education. “KET has long been a leader in workplace skills-building curriculum, both with our Workplace Essential Skills for those entering a new work field and, more recently, our Skills on Demand content, which is created for high schoolers, and our In Demand video series introducing various career sectors. And thanks to Ready To Learn and our robust network of partners, KET’s workforce readiness resources will continue to grow, serving Kentuckians of every age — from preschool through adulthood.”
Watch the video below to see how KET’s Ready To Learn efforts are making a difference.
KET is Kentucky’s largest classroom, where learning comes to life for more than one million people each week via television, online and mobile.