Students demonstrate HCPS apprenticeship ‘heat map’ dashboard showing 312 apprentices
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Summary
North Harford High School GIS students showed a live ArcGIS dashboard tracking HCPS apprenticeships and placements across the county, reporting about 312 students and roughly 188 business partners; board members asked about adding open‑position layers and whether businesses could pay for enhanced listings.
North Harford High School students and Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) CTE staff presented a live apprenticeship “heat map” to the Harford County Board of Education on May 19, 2025, demonstrating a dashboard that visualizes student placements, participating businesses and career clusters across the county.
"I'm Joe Connolly, supervisor of CTE and magnet programs, and I'm excited to present to you tonight information on our HCPS apprenticeship heat map," said Joseph Connolly as he introduced the student team and CTE staff. Matt Johnstone and students from North Harford's GIS class walked the board through an ArcGIS dashboard the class developed for HCPS, showing a homepage, multiple layers for participating businesses and student placements, and pop-up details for each opportunity including business logo, job title, address and an option to launch Google Street View.
Johnstone and student presenters said the dashboard updates in near real time when CTE staff enter a new apprentice or placement. As described to the board, the dashboard currently lists about 312 students and about 188 business partners. Presenters noted the dashboard also breaks opportunities down by career cluster aligned with Maryland State Department of Education categories.
Board members and attendees asked whether the tool could show currently open positions in addition to filled ones; presenters said adding an “open positions” layer is feasible and has been requested by other counties. Several board members and attendees discussed whether businesses could pay for enhanced pop-up content. Presenters said any decision to accept paid advertising or premium listings would be a central office or board-level policy decision.
Connolly and teachers said the project has been shared beyond Harford County: students have produced versions for several Maryland jurisdictions and the team hopes to publish a county dashboard on the HCPS website so other districts can adapt the tool. Presenters stressed that student GIS classes took a lead role in building and maintaining the dashboard as a client-style project for the CTE office.
The presentation closed after questions from board members about customization, data entry, and inter-county collaboration. The demonstration is intended to support student career pathways, make apprenticeship opportunities easier for students and families to find, and provide a tool for outreach to employers; any changes that would monetize the platform were left to district policy review.