A new home for Career and Technical Education?

tThis is not your grandmother’s Home Ec, or your grandfather’s Voc Ed

With the current goal to ensure that every student in the state of Washington will have access to a local skills center and high quality Career and Technical Education (CTE) training programs, four members of the Orcas community went to Olympia on Oct. 2 to check out the New Market Skills Center.

Orcas School District Superintendent and High School Principal Barbara Kline, Career and Technical Education Committee Chair Steve Kline, parent and advocate Samarra Shaw and I participated in a discussion and strategizing session for a potential feasibility study to bring a skills center to Orcas Island.

A skills center is a high school that focuses on vocational training of junior and senior level students. The classes run three hours per day and are small, with typically 16 students in attendance per period. Programs vary widely from computer networking, video game animation, auto mechanics, culinary arts, welding, veterinarian tech training and nursing, to police and fire sciences, plus much more.

Most of these classes share credit with community colleges so that a graduating senior can gain as many as 30 credits before starting their first year of college. The courses are taught by industry-trained professionals and the curriculum is guided by an advisory committee made up of business leaders in the local community. The advisory committee and instructors also help to find appropriate internships for students to align their CTE learning in a true work environment.

A brand new skills center is set to open Fall 2010 in Mt. Vernon and will have a branch campus in Anacortes. The Anacortes branch will concentrate on marine technology training. Given that Orcas Island is so remote, it will be a minimum of a two-hour commute to Anacortes and an extra half hour for students to arrive at the Mt. Vernon Learning Academy. There is a lobbying effort to keep our students on island for the majority of their vocational training. A group of local interested parties has met several times to discuss the types of programs that could be offered to Orcas high school students as well as the potential of stretching programming into the adult learning community.

A satellite skills center could be one solution to meet these needs. Another possibility would be to build an Orcas version of an Applied Learning Facility that incorporates not only CTE, but also the arts, agriculture, and other hands on learning programs.

It has been suggested that the programs for Orcas most likely to attract students to high demand, high quality, and high paying jobs could include a more in depth study of FEAST – Farm Education and Sustainability for Teens, energy systems engineering, culinary arts/chef prep training, health careers, and construction.

If Orcas were to successfully pass the feasibility study criteria then the satellite school would be built on the main Orcas campus but operated solely under the direction of the regional skills center out of Mount Vernon.

There is compelling evidence that indicates students who have vocational training fare better financially than those who do not take advantage of their high school CTE programs or those who lack access to skills center programs. It is generally at about age 28 that a marked increase is seen in the number of individuals going back to school for higher level training in the trades, technical colleges, and apprenticeships. The students who have exposure to high quality CTE or skills center programs are less likely to suffer from this “10 year drift” and are financially far better off over the long term.

The next year, the feasibility study will determine if the Orcas community can sustain a satellite skills center. Such a study would be conducted by community partners, a group of about six local people coordinated by Donneta Spath, Director of the Mt. Vernon Learning Academy. Interested islanders should contact me at kschuh@orcas.k12.wa.us.

If a satellite skills center were not deemed feasible, then perhaps in the next school bonding process, a concentrated effort of designing and constructing a career and technical education wing could be accomplished. Anyone who would like to be involved is encouraged to join the bond committee or help with the upcoming feasibility study.

Kari Schuh is Director of Career and Technical Education and of Special Education for the Orcas Island School District.

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