“We are really excited about CTE” Program administrator discusses CTE options for students

Another school year is coming to an end, and while students across the Mat-Su Borough are planning for graduations, summer vacations, and maybe finding gainful employment during the time off, the staff of the Matanuska Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) Career and Technical Education (CTE) are hard at work planning what courses to offer, what schools will offer, and what work force trends might need to be filled.

“Our program is so fluid, everything changes,” says Trish Zugg, the CTE Program Administrator for the district, as she peruses the current flyer posting all of the CTE programs, and which schools are offering them.

“We have super-rich programs at each high school, and we are really excited about CTE.”

This isn’t the CTE many grew up with. For instance, it is now called CTE, instead of ‘Vocational Education’, and Zugg said that is by design.

“In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, there was a push to take away the stigma of students being in vocational schools because people seemed to think those programs were for students who weren’t doing so well, maybe at risk to fail.”

The reality is that students who focused on CTE courses while in high school have higher median annual earnings than students who did not focus on CTE, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Alaska is a vocational and trades-centered state when it comes to employment opportunity, which makes the CTE program the school district offers is more valuable than ever, and shows just how far CTE has come from the “vocational education” kids down the hall to being the sought-after classes students need heading into their post-high school lives.

“For so long, we trained people to say ‘college for all,’ so we’re finally breaking that mold, especially with the workforce gap.”

Within the CTE program, there are plenty of options available to students-apprenticeships, certifications, and even college credit-to get them prepared for the next step once they graduate high school.

Right now, Zugg and the CTE staff are doing a Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment for CTE, an assessment that is required every 2 years so they can access federal grant money needed to continue the programs MSBSD offers.

“It was loud and clear from the all the constituents, parents, and stakeholders that they weren’t aware that kids could take these different classes, that we offered them,” Zugg says. To help spread the word, the CTE staff launched a bit of a marketing campaign that includes videos, posters, and informative flyers showing all of the pathways and options that are out there for students.

One standout feature that sets the MSBSD career and technical program apart is the District-Wide CTE classes. These are CTE capstone classes that are available to all MSBSD students.

“They’re classes that we can’t duplicate at every site. They are instructor-rich, facility-rich, all of those things, so we hav

Zugg says that the CTE staff works hard to ensure that those classes are made available at the beginning and/or end of the day to best facilitate students’ core schedule and transportation needs.

“There is some navigating needed so they can get all of their other graduation requirements in there.”

Somme of the junior and senior level classes that are available under this district-wide program include Certified Nursing Assistant, Construction trades, Hydraulics and Diesel Fluids, Welding, Dental Assisting, and Culinary Arts.

“It’s important that students know that they have access, that there are seats available outside of their regular schools for students across the district,” Zugg says.

For example, Zugg points out that the Dental Assisting classes, which are offered at Mat-Su Career and Technical High School, typically has 4 seats for full-time students at that school, leaving availability for students from Colony or Palmer, and of the high schools that might have students interested in taking the class.

And if the other schools don’t use those spots, those spots go back to CTHS students who might otherwise not be able to take the class.

With Alaska leaning heavily into vocational and trade jobs, it’s not surprising that there are programs such as Welding, which is offered at Palmer, Colony, Redington, Houston, and Su Valley High Schools is a full class that often has a wait list.

“Wasilla has a heavy-equipment simulator and the new firefighting program, Palmer has the ag (agriculture) program. Colony is rich with their options, staying pretty wide with their options,” says Zugg, who is very excited about the newly opened Houston High School, and the future of their CTE programs.

“They’re big with construction, carpentry, and cabinetry. But also exciting is the welding coming in there and small engines,” she said. Houston will also have culinary, healthcare, and business programs.

The CTE programs offered throughout the district can be broken down into pathways, of which there are different ones-building, business and IT, fitness/sports medicine, health, human services, natural resources, tourism and culinary, and transportation.

Under those 8 different pathways are 32 different programs available, though Zugg did note that it is important to check with counselors as some are not always available.

“For each of the programs, we have CTE programs of study, which lays out not only the CTE courses, but also inclusive of academics, while also looking at the relevant CTE courses needed, the academic rigor, student organizations.”

One thing that Zugg highlights is that there are opportunities for students to compete outside of the classroom, not for athletics, but in competitions directly related to CTE.

An example is the upcoming welding and small engines at Colony High on April 27 and 28, construction and cabinetry at Wasilla and CTHS coming up as well.

“The cool thing is that often the winners of these, the students might get direct entry into an apprenticeship, or a student won a car to take back to the school to work on.”

She likes to use the analogy of winning these competitions in CTE can be comparable to winning the state basketball tournaments-the stakes are just as high, but simply in a different context.

“It’s amazing that those are just as important, and those are leading to careers, kids are getting hired, industries like Lithia, Swikard, Buick, are judging and these kids get jobs and scholarships just the same way kids are trying to get scholarships playing basketball.”

So as students and families prepare to enjoy the summer break, Zugg wants them to also think about CTE and the many opportunities that are out there, whether at the base high school, or using the district-wide courses.

“We have good, solid career tech at all of our high schools. There’s a lot there for kids to do amazing things for their futures.”

For more information about the MSBSD Career and Technical Education, please visit www.matsuk12.us/cte