Freshmen Class Goes on Annual BBEC Field Trip

Every year the freshman class goes on the BBEC trip to different businesses around Berks County.

This year’s freshman class went on the BBEC business trip on 30 September. They went to four different businesses in and around Berks County.

The Berks Business Education Coalition is a partnership between Berks County businesses and the education community. BBEC applies the resources and expertise of the business sector to particular initiatives designed to advance student competencies and promote lifelong learning.

The BBEC program has been around for twenty-seven years, so they have been around since 1991.

“We just get told where they’re going,” guidance counselor Mr. Fred Engelhardt said. 

The four businesses to which Fleetwood was able to go were Radius in Kutztown, a place that makes toothbrushes; Solo Labs in Kutztown, which makes custom orthotics for doctors; Palmer in West Reading, which makes chocolate; and Enersys in Reading, which makes batteries. 

The Berks Business Education Coalition helps to promote career awareness and development programs for students in Berks County.

By sending them on the various field trips, students get to learn a small part of what it is like to work inside of a manufacturing workplace.

In 2018, they had 4,500 students from 19 schools around Berks County visit 28 participating businesses. 

While the freshmen class may not realize it at the time, what the BBEC trip is doing to them is teaching them the inner mechanisms that it would take to be successful in the business and manufacturing fields later in life.