Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs significantly impact the successful transition of Suffolk Public School students to postsecondary education and the workforce. Our CTE programs provide opportunities for students to apply learned technical and career readiness skills and core academic knowledge through relevant work-based learning experiences. This aids in STEM economic and workforce development.
Career-Based Education
To increase the rigor of our CTE programming, we were required to integrate academia with career-based education. This integration creates well-rounded students with a refined skill set who are more readily prepared to become gainfully employed. The academic and technical skills training within our CTE curriculum consists of 21st-century task-based competencies developed by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). These task competencies encompass workforce development as well as additional STEM-based tasks involving critical thinking and collaborative processes.
During the school year, the CTE department collaborated with science teachers and Dr. Katelyn Leitner, STEM Coordinator, to create intentional professional development on the 5E learning cycle. The 5E learning cycle is vital for CTE teachers to understand how to focus on teaching concepts to students through a series of five phases of continuous learning: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, and Evaluate. CTE teachers met during city-wide meetings. They actively participated in discussions and created and aligned innovative lesson plans that facilitate 21st-century learning.
Preparing for Tomorrow’s Careers
To ensure we prepare students for tomorrow’s careers, our teachers collaborate with local business and industry representatives to gain feedback on our programs’ improvements. One of our school partners is deeply entrenched in this process with SPS and is AMADAS Industries, the world’s leading manufacturer of advanced harvest systems for peanuts. They have provided both program and student feedback that was responsible for creating our SPS/AMADAS school-to-work internship program. This effort introduced students in our welding program to improve communication, collaboration, and creativity in the workplace. Additionally, it provided 21st-century skills necessary for increased productivity in the workforce.
Upon completion of course task competencies, students have opportunities to showcase their mastery of these tasks by successfully passing industry credentialing tests. A credential is a verification process that evaluates one’s qualifications. It is awarded through a certificate, certification, license, or degree from a post-secondary institution. The focus of Suffolk Public Schools is on helping our students acquire industry certifications within our secondary school environment. As a result, for the 2021-2022 school year, students enrolled in CTE courses earned a division total of 2,317 industry certifications. The attainment of these certifications is a predictor for success. It is often a prerequisite for our students to obtain interviews for future careers.
What makes a completer?
Students are considered completers when they successfully pass two sequential electives from the same career pathway that build on related skill sets. For the 2021-2022 school year, Suffolk Public Schools attained 612 total completers. This resulted in a 96% pass rate on industry credentialing assessments. Completers that attend programs at our division career and technical education center, The College & Career Academy at Pruden (CCAP), receive an annual completer ceremony and are awarded a certification of completion. Due to our students’ limited work experience, the certificate of completion and an industry certification serve as a resume builder.
Students in grades 10-12 from our three high schools can enroll at CCAP. CCAP students have an alternating schedule where they report to the first block class at their base school. They are transported every other day for five hours to be engaged in their specialty program. On days students do not report to CCAP, they remain at their base school for the core academic classes (e.g. math, English, science, history). Whether students are interested in pursuing a college degree, industry certification, career enhancement, or life-long learning, enrolling in a CCAP program is a valuable first step for students in preparation for the careers of their choice.
Workforce Development: What Jobs Require
Jobs in the CTE field today also require strong reading ability, communication skills, and varying degrees of math and science. As we transition our students into the workforce, CTE programs ensure a work-based learning focus, effective pedagogy, and relevant, high-quality work-based learning experiences are readily available. High-quality work-based learning consists of twelve methods of instruction that the state Department groups into three categories. These categories include Career Awareness, Career Exploration, and Career Preparation. Each phase has become entrenched in the fabric of Suffolk Public Schools CTE programs. Within these three categories, Suffolk Public Schools has focused on five instructional methods to expedite student success. These methods include service learning, school-based enterprise, internship, clinical experience, and cooperative education.
Service-learning is a teaching strategy that blends educational goals with volunteer work to give students a practical, progressive learning experience and address social problems. It should positively affect the surrounding community.
Workforce Development Student-Run Businesses
School-based enterprise allows students to showcase their work-based learning experiences while being employed within their base schools, removing the transportation barrier. These student-run businesses are created by partnerships with the surrounding business community and are supervised by CTE faculty.
Workforce Development Internships
Internships and/or clinical experiences require partnerships with businesses that allow students to acquire job experiences within their work environment. These opportunities can be non-paid or paid depending on the businesses. For example, students who are enrolled in our Health Services programs complete their work experience within a healthcare facility. Lastly, cooperative education combines theoretical classroom instruction with periods of hands-on, practical experience. This occurs in a work environment monitored weekly by CTE teachers. Students alternate between full-time jobs and academic study through the co-op program, acquiring knowledge in their chosen field of study.
Career Awareness Activities
We developed career awareness activities to help students become more aware of their interests and skills. These activities also provide the education and training required to pursue a career goal. Our students obtain a basic understanding of employment, numerous industries, and various career pathways through career awareness activities. As students begin to put into practice the skills they acquired in class, career awareness activities help them gain a deeper understanding of possible career paths. Suffolk Public Schools delivers the state’s Career Investigations course on the middle school level to all 6th-grade students to complete inside their elective rotation.
Some Career Investigations course activities include guest speakers from Chick-fil-A, Veterinary Clinics, Huntington Ingalls; field trips to our division’s technical center; or presentations about various occupations. As a team, the division felt it necessary to expose students at an earlier age. Therefore, we incorporated task competencies from a Career Exploration course into fourth and fifth-grade computer science resource classes. We did this with collaboration from Dr. Katelyn Leitner, STEM/Computer Science Coordinator.
Within this computer science course, students explore Virginia Wizard to identify their strengths and potential career interests. The computer science facilitator collaborates with school counselors to teach students about available CTE courses at the middle school level. We aim to expose students early to CTE course offerings to assist them in their transition to secondary education.
What do career exploration opportunities support?
To make decisions regarding secondary and postsecondary education and training, career exploration opportunities support the development of workplace development and readiness skills with a greater understanding of the career clusters available to students. The 17 career clusters recognized by the state department are Agriculture, Architecture and Construction, Arts/AV Technology and Communications, Business Management and Administration, Education and Training, Energy, Finance, Government and Public Administration, Health Science, Hospitality and Tourism, Human Services, Information Technology, Law/Public Safety/Corrections and Security, Manufacturing, Marketing, STEM, and Transportation/Distribution and Logistics.
Suffolk Public Schools currently offers a variety of courses that are embedded within these identified career clusters. These programs include more specific hands-on training courses inside our division’s technical education center, The College & Career Academy at Pruden. CCAP students have schedules at their home school that include Math, Science, English, and History courses. They also have alternating days to attend CCAP for hands-on training and lab sessions for their selective careers. Students also have an opportunity to explore a variety of courses at the middle school level. They can adjust their CTE pathway by updating their academic and career plans with parents and school counselors annually.
Deepening Knowledge and Skill
Career preparation is where students deepen their knowledge and develop the skills essential for success in the workplace and postsecondary education. These opportunities are advised for students who know precisely what they want to do after high school. This remains true whether they start working immediately or enroll in a postsecondary training program. These opportunities provide students ample practice using the essential knowledge and skills for their chosen careers.
Career preparation occurs in numerous ways in our CTE courses. Students engage in project-based learning and laboratory sessions that mimic day-to-day routines in work. Another career preparation opportunity is the King’s Fork High School Credit Union. This remains sponsored by our local financial partner in education, BayPort Credit Union. The credit union has been open for five years and has 39 participating accounts. Students are attempting to reestablish more student accounts after the COVID-19 pandemic school closure. This student-run school-based enterprise provides opportunities for students to engage with the student body. It also provides instructional and non-instructional high school staff in a professional environment. Students are responsible for opening new savings accounts, depositing and withdrawing money, and reconciling accounts under our CTE staff’s guidance and supervision.
Culinary Workforce Development
Lastly, our culinary arts students at CCAP had the opportunity to engage and learn from Chef Malcolm Mitchell. Chef Mitchell is a chef, author, and restaurateur who starred on the Food Network. Additionally, he was the featured chef for the Denver, Colorado Democratic National Convention for President Barack Obama.
During this fine dining event, students prepared a four-course meal for staff members to enjoy. Students learned the importance of table setting, meal preparation, customer service, and secrets of the culinary trade. Students were enamored with Chef Malcolm’s ability to alter the taste of several foods they prepared for the event. As one student marveled, “I don’t understand how he was able to make the lamb taste like beef.” Chef Malcolm then explained that braising the lamb, instead of simply roasting it, altered the taste of this particular menu. Experiences and mentorship opportunities such as these allow students to test the knowledge they have acquired in the classroom and apply it in actual practice.
Navigating STE Coursework
After navigating through our CTE coursework and programming, obtaining credentials to verify comprehension of specific skill sets, and graduating from high school, many of our students still lacked the opportunity to attain high-quality and relevant work-based learning experiences. Our objective is to prepare students for today’s and tomorrow’s jobs. In support of this effort, SPS monitors the labor market and employment data to align and guide students toward selecting high-demand/high-skill career choices.
During the last five years, the Information Technology Cluster has shown a positive trend in employment projections in several related career pathways. This prompted SPS to submit applications to the Virginia Department of Education to approve three new courses available within the Information Technology Cluster. Cybersecurity Systems Technology, Cybersecurity Operations, and Game Design and Development courses were approved. Students were enrolled in courses to produce future employees in the field.
Continued Growth
As we continue to grow our CTE programs, we still feel that our students need proven methods to assist with transitioning students into the workforce. This eliminates STEM career projection shortages in the employment pipeline. Suffolk Public Schools has taken on this challenge and launched the summer of 2023 Start Today And Rise (S.T.A.R.) Summer Internship Program for students who want opportunities to participate in high-quality work-based learning experiences. These opportunities strengthen classroom learning and prepare students for individual responsibility, teamwork, and leadership in their chosen career pathways.
This program targets rising juniors and seniors enrolled in sequential CTE elective courses with identified career pathways. Our students will submit applications and utilize the skills obtained during their interviews to participate in our homegrown summer internships. Students selected will participate in a nine-week internship program within the athletic, facilities and planning, finance, food and nutrition services, human resources, technology, and transportation departments while earning $14.46 per hour, 20 hours a week.
Why embark on this journey?
Suffolk Public Schools has decided to embark on this journey. Why? Because it provides our students with relevant work experience and sends a message to our business community. That message is that we want to be the largest employer of former Suffolk students. Providing students with experiences in the S.T.A.R. program will provide a succession plan with a pool of qualified student support staff with the skills necessary to potentially advance to the next level of their career within Suffolk Public Schools.
In addition to our division employing our students for work-based learning opportunities, we remain thankful for our local partners who offer additional opportunities to SPS students. Students can participate in internships at Starr Motors, City of Suffolk Public Works Department, and AMADAS. We are thrilled that these internship opportunities for our students have led to full-time jobs with benefits at these companies. The CTE Department’s yearly objective is to increase the number of internship opportunities available to students with our current partners. We want to do this while expanding our partnerships with future employers.
The Objective of Today and Tomorrow
Our CTE department’s objective is to readily prepare students for the jobs of today and tomorrow. Workforce development matters. CTE is the component of high schools that connects the demands of the job market and the requirements of students to prepare them to be contributing members of society after graduation. This remains true whether they enter the industry immediately or pursue further career-focused education and training (Stringfield et al., 2017). The success of our economic and workforce development pipeline strongly relies upon prioritized discussions between educational and business community leaders. Suffolk Public Schools is and will remain committed to ensuring our students have the best possible opportunities as they transition to post-secondary education and/or the workforce.
References
References: Stringfield, S., & Stone, J. R. (2017). The labor market imperative for CTE: Changes and challenges for the 21st century. Peabody Journal of Education, 92(2), 166–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956x.2017.1302209
About the Author
ANDRÉ SKINNER
André Skinner is the Director of Career & Technical Education for Suffolk Public Schools. He has served in the public education field for 23 years, 18 of those years with the Suffolk Public Schools. Throughout his career, he has been a high school special education teacher, special needs liaison for a regional technical center, assistant principal at the middle school level, principal at the elementary level, and director of a regional technical education center.
He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University and earned a Master of Science in Special Education and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Administration & Leadership from Cambridge University. Mr. Skinner believes that Career and Technical Education is an equitable pathway that promotes 21st-century skills necessary for a successful transition into the workforce or postsecondary education.
