In the Wake County Public School System, students have the opportunity to take Career and Technical Education Classes. They are meant to advance student’s skills and start preparing them for life after high school.
Students can choose classes from various areas: hospitality and tourism, business, finance, human services, arts, science, engineering, and technology.
Students can obtain their CTE Concentration which is when a student is recognized for taking four classes in the same career cluster. Getting your CTE concentration looks good on college applications, especially if your CTE Concentration is the same as your declared major.
Students have the chance to take the WorkKeys test. By taking the test, the student is able to get their National Career Readiness Certificate, which is very useful when applying for a job.
Some CTE classes also provide certifications in the class. For example, Personal Finance provides the W!SE Financial Literacy exam, which they receive a certification for, and the EverFi program certification. In the ProStart classes, students receive the ProStart Certificate.
While the CTE concentrations and certifications are nice, the real benefit of CTE classes is the skills and the curriculum that is taught in class. The classes help students decide if this really is their passion. If they do decide to go into that career path, then they have developed new skills to help them in their career.
Leesville has done an outstanding job at hiring CTE teachers with experience in that area. For example, Holly Laird who teaches personal finance and a couple of other business classes, used to work in a bank. Lorin Goins has worked fist-hand in the food industry with catering jobs and more, even cooking on the set of Iron Man 3.
With some of the career pathways, it is almost required to go to college. These CTE classes have been shown to help students in their college classes, as they already know some of the material.
Not all of the classes are career-specific. Classes like personal finance or microsoft word and powerpoint are highly beneficial to anyone who takes them as they teach necessary life-skills.
“I think the benefit of CTE classes is that it allows students to explore different avenues, different careers, different pathways. Mostly we hope that everyone graduates, but we want them to have an idea where they want to go for their life,” said Holly Laird, CTE department member.
“Leesville Road High School believes that connecting with our community helps to support student-centered, 21st Century workplace skills such as communication, collaboration, leadership, innovation, personal accountability, project-based learning, global awareness, technology literacy, economic/financial literacy, and health/environmental literacy,” says the LRHS CTE website.
CTE classes are very meaningful to both students and the community as it prepares students for their careers and the life they have ahead of them.
If you would like more information about CTE classes, such as a list of certifications you can receive from CTE classes, what classes fall under each concentration, and information about CTE related clubs, a list of the CTE teachers and staff, visit lrhscte.weebly.com.
