By: Aaron Anderson, CTE Director
February is CTE month allowing us to celebrate our CTE Champions and the opportunities we are providing to Dickinson Public School (DPS) students. Career and Technical Education (CTE) has always played a key role at DPS for decades, and the district has doubled down in giving our students expanded opportunities with the launch of the north campus and the Southwest Area CTE Academy. While progress continues with the renovation of the north campus with a planned opening of August 2023, outstanding CTE programs are thriving at both the middle and high school. I would like to share five reasons why students should enroll in our CTE classes.
1. Career Exploration. The earlier we provide our students with the opportunity to explore various careers, the earlier it gives them a sense of direction. With the costs of post-secondary education on the rise and so many career opportunities available in our community, our programs give students a chance to have those experiences early on to help them fast-track into a college or career. This not only helps our students, but also the employers in our communities to expand their potential workforce.
2. CTE leads to Higher Student Achievement. Increasing student achievement can seem challenging when students are disengaged from their learning and cannot align their schoolwork to their future lives. When our students see how their learning directly correlates with their post-graduation goals, they become engaged and focused. Research shows “ninety-one percent of high school graduates who earned 2-3 credits in CTE enrolled in college.” In North Dakota, we also see CTE students have significantly lower dropout rates compared with their peers. I also cannot forget to mention the outstanding skills and experiences our Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs) like FBLA, FCCLA, FFA, Skills USA, and TSA provide and their correlation to student success.
3. Workforce Ready. Our CTE teachers provide students with hands-on learning that is tied to workforce ready skills. We continually evaluate our programs through feedback from our industry and community advisory committees to help address their most critical needs. In addition, we look for ways to provide students with access to relevant industry certifications to help level them up for their future career. With the expansion to the north campus, more opportunities are available to address some of our skills gaps and provide access to additional certifications.
4. Build Relationships. We see too many talented young people leave our community for the promise of more exciting and expanded educational and career opportunities. Many who have moved to this community have said the “grass is greener” on our side of the fence, which is demonstrated by our diverse economy, availability of great jobs, and a fantastic post-secondary partner in DSU right in our backyard. CTE classes allow students to build relationships with our local employers and gain early entry into college programs to help retain and recruit our next generation of workers. We have invested in expanding our work-based learning program to engage more students in our community for on-the-job training as a capstone to their CTE class experience.
5. CTE teachers and CTE staff. Our CTE teachers at DHS and DMS are fantastic and committed to providing our students with the best quality education and opportunities. The support staff behind the scenes provides the tools to ensure our CTE teachers have what they need and make our students feel welcome in our district.
We recognize as a district that CTE is for all students, whether you are the high school valedictorian or a student at risk of not graduating. Regardless of the situation, our schools provide opportunities along with a CTE teacher who is invested in our students’ future success. If you are a student reading this, take a chance and enroll in a CTE class to open doors and opportunities for you. If you are a parent, grandparent, or community member, encourage our students to take the leap into a CTE program, provide input/feedback as an industry partner, or find resources you might invest in our programs to support the next generation of workers. Thank you for your continued support of CTE and helping us celebrate our CTE Champions this February.