Careers Beyond the Counter
Pathways in Tourism

Strengthen Your Workforce While
Strengthening Our Community!

Sound good? Join the Visitors Bureau’s “Careers Beyond the Counter” (CBC) tourism program and connect local high school students with the Dare County tourism industry.

Please let us know if your business is interested in offering Internships, or if your business can provide managerial-level speakers for the Speaker’s Bureau.

You’ll be helping Dare County high school students gain a firsthand understanding of the different career paths found within our $1.8 billion local tourism industry.

Nothing beats hands on experience when it comes to helping our youth decide what they want to do or how best to direct their future studies. Our local industry can be the launch pad, but also provide a world of professional opportunities right here at home.

Internships

Don’t have a program set-up? No problem. Here are some things to think about when creating an intern position that’s manageable for the business and meaningful for the student.

1.      Who in your company will coordinate the student’s efforts and be the main point of contact?

2.      What schedule works best for both parties? Tip: Regular hours/days can make it easier to plan the intern’s activities.

3.      Is the internship paid? Will transportation to and from work be compensated? (Don’t have to be but doesn’t hurt either! Just be clear upfront.)

4.      Students are coming from the high school’s Career & Technical Education (CTE) program. Internships, therefore, should provide experiences consistent with the career path being studied. For example, Business Administration students might have interest in fields like marketing, advertising, finance, public relations, social media and entrepreneurship, to mention a few.

Other CTE pathways with strong connections to the tourism industry include Arts, A/V & Communications (graphic design, web design, video production) and Hospitality & Tourism, Culinary (lodging, restaurants, retail and service providers).

Some positions, like front desk at hotels, or hostess, cashier, greeter and customer service jobs are the backbone of our hospitality businesses and frontline in nature; however, Careers Beyond the Counter is intended to broaden the student’s perspective beyond the types of jobs they may have held already during summer employment.

Wherever possible, please develop internships with this in mind and help the student understand how frontline or counter positions connect with other careers within your business.

5.      Is there a particular project that the student can “own” over the length of their internship? These types of projects can be helpful to the student as they summarize activities for class credit reports at the end of the term.

6.      Have questions or need help? Contact the Visitors Bureau and we’ll put you in touch with the Dare County School’s Intern Coordinator or a Career Development Counselor (each high school has one). They are a fantastic resource and super easy to work with.

Speaker’s Bureau

The Speaker’s Bureau gives presenters the unique opportunity to connect with students in the classroom. These types of speaking engagements have led to companies recruiting student workers.

The security of the classroom environment encourages youth to ask questions that they might not at a job fair. The speaker is also able to personalize their own career path and make it real for students (while highlighting the range of job types within the tourism industry).

Company speakers should be relevant to the CTE career paths being offered by the high school. For instance, a Food & Beverage Manager would be appropriate for the Hospitality & Tourism, Culinary CTE class, while a Marketing Manager might speak to a Business Administration CTE class. The CTE paths, and examples of professions within the tourism industry, are provided within the chart on the following page.

You can participate in the Speaker’s Bureau program a couple of ways: 1. Provide speaker contact info for each CTE pathway, or 2. Provide the contact information for the person within your company who will be coordinating speakers and let us know which CTE paths your speakers can cover.

If you have any questions, give the Visitors Bureau a call! Or, you can email questions to love@outerbanks.org. Thanks for participating in this important program!