CTE Foundation

Kathy Goodacre and Tony Crabb presented a program about the operations of the Career Technical Educational Foundation of Sonoma County.

 

CTE was created in 2013 to help develop a career technical education program that ensures that all students in Sonoma County receive an education that prepares them for lifelong learning beyond high school, hands-on business experience as well as career training.

 

In the old model of vocational education there was very limited access and opportunity to develop academic skills or skills that are necessary to promote communication and collaboration in the workplace. Most of the vocational programs in the high schools did not prepare students for ongoing learning and generally isolated students in a "non-academic" pathway that often ended if and when they graduated from high school.

 

In the future, all students will need to have a much broader preparation that gives them both academic as well as practical aspects to their education. The new model of education includes both academic understanding of the manufacturing process as well as hands-on experience creating goods, and working in teams to facilitate production as well as to provide services. Both technical and soft skills are necessary for success in today's economy.

 

It is estimated that over 4.7 million new CTE workers will be needed by the year 2018.

 

CTE has aligned with local industries to include internships, preceptor opportunities and classroom visitations by representatives of the major industries throughout Sonoma County. By focusing on local needs, students are better able to create a vision for their future that is realistic and that will most likely prepare them to fill these positions.

 

The Board of Directors of CTE includes representatives from government, industry and the educational system. CTE wool provide seed funding for grants to various educational institutions to provide this educational experience on a "no cost" basis to school districts. If the programs are successful, the school districts almost invariably adopt them along with adequate funding at the end of the three-year grant period. Grants must meet 12 criteria in order to be accepted.

 

Most of these programs are industry driven. Examples include the North Coast Builders Exchange which has an advisory board of contractors to shape the direction of the educational training of students in middle school, high school and at the junior college. Students learn the academic skills necessary to function as a builder, including the social skills of working as members of a construction team, and also get hands-on experience with actually building things.

 

A similar program is in place with Kaiser Permanente in the healthcare field.

 

The third project includes Sonoma Clean Power and is focused at the middle school level were a program at Healdsburg Junior high school has students building an all electric vehicle that qualifies to be driven on public roads.

 

There are numerous slides available on the club website from this presentation that include more details of the program.

 

To date over 3,160 students have enrolled in CTE programs since 2013. There are 66 sections and 43 STEM programs that have been implemented since 2013. Over $1.34 million have been granted to school since 2013, with over $450,000 awarded in 2016. There are 12 high schools in eight school districts implementing CTE Foundation programs. Over 1,700 students have completed the financial literacy part of the model CT elements since its inception.

 

Graduation rates for students enrolled in CTE programs are 90%, compared with 80% for the general school population. Students who complete a blended academic and CTE curriculum are more likely to pursue and complete college and earn a higher GPA. 81% of high school dropouts report that more hands-on learning may have influenced them to stay in school.

 

We are fortunate to have CTE operating in our community. More information is available at www.ctesonomacounty.org.