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August 28, 2023 PAID POST » Education
Published August 28, 2023 at 11:00 a.m.
Earned college credit. Career certifications. Connections for future jobs and internships. These are just a few things that students in Vermont’s Career Technical Education programs can gain through more than 25 possible paths.
Keronie Jones, enrolled in the health sciences program at River Valley Technical Center, is providing care to real patients while she’s still in high school.
“The program will grant me the experience I need. The certifications that it gives me are very important skills that will get me accepted into better colleges,” she said.
Students at Vermont's CTE centers leave high school with highly sought after industry certifications that will prepare them well for a range of careers and college health sciences majors. They can be certified as phlebotomists, licensed nursing assistants, dental assistants, medical assistants, or emergency medical technicians.
Kaylie Selleck will graduate from high school this spring with a semester’s worth of college credits under their belt due to their work in the engineering program at Stafford Technical Center. Beyond the credits on paper, they will also have hands-on experience in engineering as they pursue their career.
“There’s so much creative freedom to be challenged here, which is exactly what you should have in your education: healthy challenges,” they said.
Both of these students are enrolled in CTE programs supported by the Vermont Agency of Education. There are 17 CTE centers throughout Vermont providing instruction for students interested in more than 25 different paths, from dental care to building trades.
The different program choices provide a wide range of options that recognize that each young person is different, interim Secretary of Education Heather Bouchey said.
“Vermont’s CTE programs offer unique pathways to student success,” she said. “There is no one-size-fits-all educational path.” These classes set students up for success in whatever comes next, whether that’s a high-skill, high-wage career or a college education.
It wasn’t always that way, said Melissa Connor, director of Stafford Technical Center in Rutland. Connor began working in technical education in Vermont in 1993. Back then, she said, it was mostly geared toward students who didn’t want to attend college.
“That’s just not true anymore,” Connor said. “I see about a 50-50 split at our center between students planning on attending university and students planning to start their careers. It’s our philosophy here that they might not want to go to college now, but we always want to make sure our students are ready if they want to do more school later.”
In fact, 90 percent of students in CTE courses transition to either work or college immediately upon graduation. Often, students graduate having already earned a full semester’s worth of college credits.
“The college opportunities and certifications at Career Technical Education centers are a hidden gem in our community,” Connor added.
Preparing for a Career
At a point when most incoming high school seniors start planning their next steps after graduation, Joaquin Martin already has his figured out.
As he begins his senior year at Hanover High School, Martin will be able to spend part of his day building houses with MJ Toon Construction in Lebanon, N.H., before heading back to the classroom in the afternoon. After he graduates, Martin will have the opportunity to start working with the company full time.
Martin started attending the Hartford Area Career & Technology Center in his junior year after speaking to one of his teachers.
“I like to keep busy and work with my hands. I love the feeling of putting something together and seeing the finished product right in front of me,” he explained.
His teacher said he might benefit from work-based learning, which would allow him to do exactly what he was describing.
“These programs are a really good fit for students who like to be moving around, seeing and doing,” Connor said.
Every day at the tech center, Martin starts in the construction trades shop. While there, he reads blueprints, works with different types of wood, and gets started on projects such as building cabinets or countertops.
Nancy Wiese, director at Windham Regional Career Center, said these courses teach more than the industry-recognized credentials.
“They teach what I call ‘adulting skills’,” she explained. “Students learn problem-solving, safe risk-taking, and they form a team with the other kids in the class to work on projects. It really creates a sense of belonging, which I think a lot of kids that age struggle with, especially post-pandemic.”
Martin said that before working in the building trades, he felt unsure about his future. Now, he feels confident and excited about what’s next after high school.
“It really helped me set up what I wanted to do later in life and figure out what I wanted to do after high school,” Martin said. “When I figured that out, the program helped me network and make connections around the Upper Valley, which helped me find a job.”
Ready for College
While Emma Dana spent three years in engineering classes at River Valley Technical Center in Springfield, she’s not planning on pursuing that field after high school.
“I discovered that I’m more interested in architecture,” she said. Dana starts at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh this fall. “But I fully believe that I wouldn’t have gotten into that program without everything I was able to do at RVTC.”
She spent part of her senior year in an independent study course that allowed her to build her architecture portfolio for college applications.
In Dana’s program, senior year is devoted to independent study. While Dana didn’t want to pursue engineering, she knew that she wanted to apply to study architecture in college. To do this, she would need to augment her learning with a portfolio to apply to her dream schools.
“I spent the first half of the year on my portfolio, and then in the second half I did a capstone project that involved learning an architecture modeling software,” she said. “My program gave me the opportunity to learn something I was going to need in college, which made me feel really prepared.”
For Dana, enrolling at River Valley Technical Center, even as a sophomore who was unsure about her future career, was a no-brainer. Her mother used to teach business classes there; her older brother also studied engineering, and she saw how much it helped him.
Through their CTE programs, both Dana and her brother competed in SkillsUSA, a national career technical student organization that hosts competitions statewide and nationally for CTE center students. Dana also graduated with 21 college credits, which she said could help her get a minor in civil engineering in college. Paths to earning college credits differ based on each center and program, but opportunities are built into the curriculum through partnerships with colleges in Vermont and around the country.
Dana’s instructor Chris Gray taught at Vermont Technical College before taking on his current high school CTE teaching role. Gray gives his students an experience that was comparable to what they’d find in a college classroom, Dana said. He also organized job shadows and made sure that students knew about opportunities for dual enrollment.
“We got real life experiences,” Dana said.
'Beyond Valuable'
Declan Anderson recently finished building a house.
He did this over the course of the school year with three of his peers in construction technology at the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center. As part of the curriculum in their second year, four students built a tiny house from the ground up. The center sold it to raise money for materials for future students.
“The experience really simulates what it’s like to be on an actual jobsite,” Anderson said. “We did all the framing, the insulation, everything.” He said he was so enthusiastic about the project that he was often reluctant for the school day to end.
After graduating from Middlebury Union High School last spring, Anderson spent the summer working for Silver Maple Construction in New Haven. He’ll attend Vermont State University for construction management this fall, but he hopes to stay with Silver Maple part time while he’s in school and continue to work summers there.
He said he feels really prepared for college. “We learned every single aspect of construction, so I have a wide bank of knowledge for all kinds of projects. I have all this hands-on experience, too, that I really feel like I’m going to benefit from. It was beyond valuable.”
Connor from Stafford Technical Center noted that the classes CTE students take are “pretty rigorous.” This is because they align with labor-market needs here in Vermont, she said, and they’re often changing to keep up with the needs of the workforce. But she said that when she brings parents and interested students on tours of Stafford Technical Center, she doesn’t need to do a lot of talking.
“When they see what’s happening, it’s very eye-opening. These students are doing incredible things,” she said.
Wiese from Windham Regional Career Center said the best thing for students to do if they're curious about technical education is to take a tour of their regional CTE center. Students and parents can also reach out to their school counselor or attend an open house for their center in the fall. However, she said they’re always happy to give individual tours for those interested, whether there’s an open house planned or not.
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