As loyal CTE Policy Watch readers may already know, ACTE Legislative and Public Affairs Manager Sean Lynch recently conducted a media tour of programs in central Illinois to raise awareness of successful CTE programs in the area. To learn more about the tour and read our previous coverage, click here.
The media tour of Illinois continued on day three, starting off in Champaign, Illinois at the Parkland College Career Center. This brand new facility will bring together students from 14 local schools to engage in career exploration, earn state and industry-recognized credentials or certifications and build their technical and employability skills. The facility was constructed to meet the needs of a variety of CTE programs that are growing in the area, and has engaged with local business and industry leaders to ensure that the programs’ curriculum will prepare students for careers in their communities.
During the tour of Parkland’s facilities, we visited their automotive technician training program where students were busily huddled over an engine. These students, their instructor notes, are almost four times as likely to graduate from a postsecondary program compared to students that didn’t get the chance to participate in this CTE program. Graduates from the program have had consistent success in obtaining careers in their field, including one who has gone on to take an engineering position working on the Cadillac SLR. Not all students leave Illinois, however – for example, I spoke with Carlos, a student who is currently enrolled in the program and working at a local Nissan facility. He explained how the program has taught him to work with a small team, and told me about his goal of obtaining his SAE certification. This credential will open doors to additional career opportunities and higher wages for him, all while he’s still early in his educational career.
After visiting Parkland, we went on to Urbana High School. There, we visited a classroom where students listened on as their instructor walked them through a lesson on agricultural education. After the class, we went to their industrial technology facilities, which provide students with lessons in mechanical engineering and integrates their local economy and culture by focusing on agricultural technologies. Students can also study welding in the facility – a nationally in-demand career path that offers lucrative pay and bountiful opportunity.
The afternoon brought us to the Vermillion Vocational System at Danville Area Community College. The facility recently reopened, and has experienced significant growth in its student body as local high schools have started to bring in students. The students there are able to participate in mentorship programs with leaders from local businesses, and leaders from the school’s administration have placed a special emphasis on preparing students for careers that are in-demand in their community, particularly in the manufacturing sector as welders or machinists. The program encountered some issues in building interest in these careers due to outdated perceptions and misunderstandings about the manufacturing industry, but overcame those challenges by organizing a “Tour of Industry” through local facilities.
Today, more than 100 students are enrolled in Danville Area Community College’s Manufacturing Engineering Technology courses. They were the first community college in the state to add the National Institute for Manufacturing Skills’ curriculum to their classrooms, which includes a world-class partnership with the local ThyssenKrupp manufacturing facility. ThyssenKrupp brings students into its facilities to participate in a comprehensive workplace learning rotation through each of its departments and roles – including Logistics, Production and Safety. During our tour of the facility, a young woman named Kaylee explained how she had learned that careers on the company’s Logistics team interested her most, and her experience there helped her identify how she could achieve her goals. In addition, Donnie Robinson, the ThyssenKrupp Training Manager for the Danville facility, explained that the students culminate their experience by developing a final project, which includes an idea for “adding value” to the organization. The students’ ideas are then submitted to ThyssenKrupp management – and some will even be implemented by the company on the shop floor.
To learn more about how you can organize your own public awareness activities, visit ACTE’s Targeting the Media page in the Action Center – and keep an eye out for our final roundup of stories from the tour!