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Career Training Gives High Schoolers a Jump on the Future
Career Training Gives High Schoolers a Jump on the Future 2/24/13
mrist@ cbs7.com
CBS 7 News Reporter
February 24, 2013
ODESSA-Enrollment in Career and Technical Education programs in ECISD is up 20 percent and organizers say new offerings and locations are why.
For one Permian High School Student, he chose CTE because it's just plain cool.
Gone are the days of just band and art--now students in ECISD can pick up other trades.
They learn to be firefighters, cosmetologists, or like 15-year-old Noah Nunez, learn how to be on TV.
"You can come here and do these technical classes which is really cool,” said Nunez. “They bring these hands on courses that actually benefit you when you get out of school.”
CTE’s director, Carla Byrne, says the program is expanding in part because of where courses are taught.
“We’ve been moving some of our courses from the technical schools to the high school campuses,” Byrne said.
That means most students don't have to give up their regular activities.
“I’m in orchestra and I’m a section leader for Cello,” Nunez said. “This class is not interfering with it, despite how much responsibility I have.”
Some courses, like healthcare or firefighting offer certifications, with ECISD and grant money picking up the tab for most, if not all of the cost.
For Noah, he says he chose CTE to get a head start.
“Being able to discover what you want to do in high school and being able to translate that--it's an amazing opportunity,” Nunez said. “Rather than having to wait till college to be able to do something like that.”
But it hasn't always been easy, Noah has spent months working on a video he's taking to a state-wide competition next week in Houston.
“We had everything set up, the lights going and the Teleprompters rolling,” Nunez said. “We had kids with headsets on working the cameras. It was a fully functioning news station for about an hour.”
ECISD says it's enrollment for this year is 4283, that’s up 20 percent from last year.
It expects to keep growing, work begins on a new fire training school at Odessa College this spring.