PLANT CITY, Fla. — The Future Career Academy is kicking off its annual business tours to give high school seniors the opportunity to learn about careers outside of college.
For some high school seniors, the future is full of unknowns.
“I started off with not knowing what I’m going to do,” says Luis Canul, who will graduate in May 2025 from Simmons Career Center in Plant City.
To help find answers to some of his unknowns, he’s going on a business tour with the Future Career Academy. It gives him an inside look at what a warehouse career could be.
The tours are immersing students in careers that don’t require a college degree.
For Canul, the tour has been educational, but it’s also got him thinking about what’s next. “They open my eyes to things that out of my family and culture, I would never see, I wouldn’t know that at the hospital they did this or at the warehouse they did this, so now it opens me to more opportunities that I could get.”
The business tours are open to high school students across Hillsborough County.
Simmons Career Center school counselor Jeanne Knotts says most of their students don’t go to a four-year university, and the tours have become another avenue to help their graduates find employment.
“We’ve had numerous students find careers and just interests through learning more about jobs in the community,“ said Knotts.
And while most might think working in a hospital requires first going to college, there are other options the students are learning about too.
“We have quite a few entry-level roles that are good for the students, whether it be clinical or non-clinical,” said BayCare Talent Acquisition Advisor Haley Rohr.
BayCare says it has had students come back after tours with more questions and a desire to apply.
For Canul, it’s about finding the right fit.
“I look at benefits, how the work area is, because I want to work in a place that is friendly,” he said.
The tours will be taking place through the end of February.