MISHAWAKA, Ind - Mishawaka Schools will be introducing a new job program for graduating high school students.

The program that’s informally known as “Grade 13” is not an extra year of school, but a program that teaches skills that will make students valuable when entering the workforce.

The program is geared towards students that successfully complete high school and want to enter the workforce rather than go to college.

“The whole notion in general is to kind of extend our internship programs that have a lot of opportunities for kids to go into office environments and also industrial environments and basically intern in their senior year but not every kid is ready for that in their senior year so we extend to a Grade 13 situation,” said John Ross, Associate Principal of Mishawaka High School.

The next 12 months will be spent putting together a work group with local business partners to decide what skills they want and how many students the program can support.

The program will be paid for by Mishawaka Schools with money that’s already in the budget

“The real goal is to make sure that every kid when they graduate their senior year is good to go, and that they’re ready to go to the next step” Ross said.