Career tech still helping students succeed
Generation “Z,” our first generation of 21st-century students, is preparing not only for their immediate future as they work toward graduation and beyond, but also for jobs that do not even yet exist. The challenge for school districts is to provide these students with the resources, programming and forward-thinking guidance that will help them succeed long after they walk across that stage and accept their high school diplomas.
The Board of Education, administration and staff of the Kettering City Schools were certainly thinking into the future when they partnered with the Centerville and Oakwood city school districts more than 40 years ago to establish a compact that would deliver career tech programming to students right in their home high schools.
That original career tech compact consisted of four programs serving a total of 68 students. Today’s students in the Fairmont Career Tech Center have the opportunity to enroll in 12 programs at Fairmont High School and an additional four unique programs at Centerville High School, all of which are preparing them for in-demand, high-tech, good-paying jobs.
In an amazing partnership forged with Sinclair Community College, students who participate in a two-year tech prep program through the Fairmont Career Tech Center are eligible to receive $3,000 Sinclair scholarships. In turn, Sinclair Community College credits are transferrable to colleges and universities in Ohio and across the country, and Sinclair has articulation agreements with several universities — including the University of Dayton and Wright State University — whereby students who successfully complete their associate’s degrees at Sinclair can enroll at these universities at a reduced tuition rate to complete their bachelor’s degrees.
In addition, Sinclair has recently opened its certification programming to allow students who may not want to pursue a degree tract to instead work toward certification in a particular field and to earn “stackable” certificates — multiple certificates within the same career discipline, making these students infinitely more marketable when they complete their schooling at Sinclair.
Fairmont’s Career Tech Center student pretty much defies a single label. A full 40 percent of juniors and seniors are participating in a two-year career-technical program in the Fairmont CTC. Some 60 percent of all Fairmont students will have completed at least one career tech semester elective by the time they graduate from high school. During a typical school year, career tech students earn more than 2,000 semester hours of college credit. This, coupled with their Sinclair scholarships, saves students and their families nearly $1 million in college costs.
We are fortunate to be able to offer students at Fairmont High School access to a robust advanced studies program, including 17 Advanced Placement courses and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. A third of all CTC students are enrolled in one or more of these advanced study courses, in addition to their tech prep courses.
As our career tech compact works to prepare our students for today’s workforce, we are also continually looking toward the strategic expansion of programming. Our CTC principal, Liz Jensen, and her career tech instructors have active business advisory committees in place, and these business partners help us shape our programs.
For example, this year, the Kettering City Schools established a Fire Science program through the Fairmont CTC that will prepare students to graduate from high school as certified firefighter/EMTs. With their Sinclair scholarships, these students can go on to get their full paramedic license, something that many fire departments are now requiring when they hire new firefighters. The addition of this program was the result of conversations we had with local fire departments who are always looking for experienced professionals to join their ranks. The cities of Kettering, Centerville and Oakwood, along with Washington Township, have all contributed to this program. These communities made us aware of a need, and it is through the cooperative partnership between the Kettering Schools and these municipalities that this program was established.
It was true visionaries who created the Centerville-Kettering-Oakwood Career Tech Compact more than four decades ago, and as our CTC has evolved and expanded, we continue to provide a huge number of students with the stepping stones to bright, satisfying futures and successful careers. As we pay tribute to these visionaries, we also extend a big thank you to our citizens for your support of strong career tech opportunities for all students.