Exploring the College and Career Opportunities of CTE

This month’s topic is on college and career readiness. It is an exciting time to be in CTE. Currently my Dr. Beyonka Wider214school district’s CTE department is in transformation. The CTE department is in the process of realigning its CTE programs to ensure that we prepare students to leave high school for the workforce or for post- secondary opportunities. 

Our CTE Mission Statement states that ‘Career and Technology Education will provide rigorous and relevant programs and services necessary for students to acquire the knowledge and skills to meet their lifelong academic and occupational goals.’ As early as the 8th grade, students are given the opportunity to choose a career pathway of interest during their Individual Graduation Planning session (IGP). Middle level students participate in Career Interest Inventories and are able to engage in many work-based learning experiences such as career fairs, job shadowing (on-site), job shadowing (virtual), career mentoring, guest speaker, service learning, or structured field study.  All 10th grade students declare an academic focus and all high school students are able to participate in the following types of work-based learning experiences: apprenticeship, cooperative education (Co-Op), job shadowing (on-site), job shadowing (virtual), mentoring, service learning, structured field study, guest speakers, career fairs, school-based enterprise, or work-bases learning credit bearing course.  In addition, our high school CTE program offers  the opportunity to be involved in the following student organizations:  Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), Future Leaders of America (FBLA), Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), Skills USA, Technology Students Association (TSA). In South Carolina all of our 11th grade students take the WorkKeys Assessment as a part of their graduation requirements.

Annually, the South Carolina Department of Education along with the South Carolina Association for Career and Technical Education sponsors a professional development conference called the ‘Education and Business Summit’, which is South Carolina's largest annual professional development event for the state's career and technology educators and administrators. The Education and Business Summit is a multi-faceted professional development, training, and informational state conference supporting accountability regarding all aspects of career and technology education, including a focus on the integration of academics and career and technical education, transitions from secondary to postsecondary education, and teachers’ certificate renewal. 

By Dr. Beyonka Wider a 2016 Region II Fellow.