Career/Vocational Technical Education

Career and Technical Education Partnership Implementation Grant Awardees Overviews (Fund Code 406)

In February 2017, the Office for College, Career, and Technical Education awarded $702,800 in federal funds available through the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act to seven public school districts and community colleges. The awardees were drawn from twelve Career and Technical Education (CTE) Partnership Planning Grant (FC405) recipients.

The purpose of the funding is to support regional and local partnerships to expand existing and/or develop new CTE programs and initiatives that increase student access to CTE opportunities, primarily through more effective use and integration of existing capacity and resources. Below you will find brief descriptions of the seven funded Implementation grants.

☑ Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC), in partnership with Charlestown High School (CHS), proposes to develop the C-Town Business Program, an early college pathway for CHS students in grades 9-12. BHCC will lead the initiative. The C-Town Business program builds on C-Town Tech, a pathway launched in 2014 at CHS to prepare high school students for IT-focused careers. The C-Town Business option was launched this year, in September 2016, with 23 CHS students currently enrolled. CTE Partnership grant funds will expand program implementation, bringing on a second cohort of 30 students in September 2017, and help CHS obtain Chapter 74 designation for the program. A primary goal of C-Town Business is to have students obtain a foundation of business and general education courses and to earn college credits towards an A.A. in Business Administration or B.S. in Management degree.

The C-Town Business program will be open to all entering Charlestown High School students, including students with moderate learning disabilities and English language learners. Based on CHS' student population, BHCC anticipates that nearly all C-Town Business students will be economically disadvantaged and from populations traditionally under-represented in higher education.

☑ The Holyoke CTE Partnership is led by Holyoke Community College and includes Holyoke Public Schools and Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), as well as the HCC and STCC joint employer-engagement/ workforce development initiative Training and Workforce Options (TWO). The Partnership will implement a plan to increase access to Career and Technical Education (CTE) to students of William J. Dean Technical High School (Dean Tech). Project partners have designed career pathways for the healthcare, manufacturing/engineering, and hospitality/culinary arts industry sectors and are set to begin implementation upon grant approval. The overall goal of the partnership is to increase access in multiple areas, including STEM, Business and Financial Services, and IT, though the primary focus of this grant will be on the three mentioned above.

Overall, the partnership will increase the number of students accessing the new and enhanced Career Pathways at William J. Dean Technical High School (Dean Tech); These expanded opportunities for CTE programming will be offered primarily at Dean Tech as part of the Secondary Redesign plan, which will incorporate existing resources available at the school and community. Targeted students will be Holyoke 9th graders in the new Freshman Academy, which is offering a new, mandatory Explorations course for students to experience the different, expanded, and improved CTE pathways at Dean Tech.

☑ The Health Careers Pathways Project is a collaborative program, including Lynn Vocational Technical Institute (LVTI), Operation Bootstrap, and North Shore Medical Center (NSMC), which will provide training in EKG and Phlebotomy. This program will increase access to CTE for Lynn Public School's students who are currently on a waiting list, as well as create a program for Operation Bootstrap's Adult English Language Learners (ELLs) who currently have no CTE access. Additionally, NSMC has partnered with LVTI for full time credentialed health care specialists. Support through the Career and Technical Education Partnership Grant will expand the existing Health Technology program at LVTI to include Phlebotomy and EKG certifications, increase our CTE Health Technology area to accommodate more students and extend the program to include adult learners from Operation Bootstrap through evening and summer programs.

Increasing CTE access though this Health Career Pathways Project for an additional 180-200 students over a four-year period will benefit both CTE students and this adult learner population. We view this program as a pilot, offering technical credentialing opportunities to high school students and adults with low-level English. This model provides both technical training and English language acquisition.

☑ Massasoit Community College will serve as project lead with partner Norfolk County Agricultural High School (Norfolk Aggie) for the Massasoit/Norfolk Aggie Veterinary Technology Partnership Program. This initiative aims to increase the number of credentialed veterinary technicians in Massachusetts by providing: 1) expanded access to and more effective use of existing program equipment, capacity, and resources at both institutions and 2) an accelerated pathway to an Associate in Applied Science Degree in Veterinary Technology for students enrolled at Norfolk Aggie. Through this partnership, students enrolled in Norfolk Aggie's Animal Science program will have a new academic and career pathway in Veterinary Technology not currently available to them. The program will enable Norfolk Aggie students who meet the enrollment criteria for the Massasoit Veterinary Technology program to earn college credit toward the Veterinary Technology degree while still in high school through dual enrollment courses and prior learning assessment. Program graduates will be prepared to sit for the Veterinary Technician National Exam and enter the workforce as well-qualified veterinary technicians.

The partnership will result in a total of 39 Veterinary Technology seats per year: 15 high school-to- college seats per year and 24 post-secondary seats per year. The target populations will be the diverse communities in southeastern Massachusetts served by both Massasoit and Norfolk Aggie. The partnership will make special efforts to recruit racial and/or linguistic minorities and economically disadvantaged students.

☑ Thanks to a Career and Technical Education Partnership Planning Grant, Quincy Public Schools (QPS) has designed a new program to increase access to career/vocational technical education (CTE) for underserved students called Ladders 2 Success (L2S). L2S is specifically tailored for students who are economically and socially disadvantaged, who speak a different language, and who have social/emotional disabilities. These students need a different approach to finding success - they need ladders. L2S will provide individual coaching, customized programming, hands-on training, internships, clinical placements, and college experience for underserved students who are in the evening high school, English Learners (EL) and students with social/emotional disabilities. QPS will serve as the lead working with 25 local businesses in the Quincy School-Community Partnership to integrate students into CTE career pathways. L2S will use existing resources in QPS to open up approximately 80 seats per year into all 15 CTE career pathways.

☑ Collaborative Access Project for Expanding Career Opportunity Development (CAPECOD) will expand access to career pathways for secondary school students currently denied entry because of a shortage of appropriate vocational training facilities in the region. It will combine the facilities and experience in vocational/technical education of the Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School (UCCRTS) with the academic programs and individually-designed supportive services and counseling provided by the Cape Cod Collaborative, along with academic programs in six of the region's other public high schools. A new Chapter 74 program in Building and Property Maintenance would combine the after-hours, underused vocational resources at the UCCRTS with the Collaborative's support services for students at-risk of failing and graduating without access to careers. Other school district partners would provide academic courses for the target population at the home schools and then send their students to UCCRTS for after-hours vocational training, giving them access to the workplace that they would not otherwise have.

Current plans call for enrolling 30 students in the first year: 15 each from the Cape Cod Collaborative's Waypoint Academy and 15 from those who have applied for admission to the UCCRTS but have been denied enrollment in the regular program. At that enrollment level, 120 to 150 students will have access to career training over the first five years. The planners also discussed the potential of adding a summer program once the regular year program is established. And they acknowledged the scalability of the CAPECOD program to replicate the partnership in other vocational programs. CAPECOD would target three populations of students 1) those who have been denied access to UCCRTS due to limited vocational education facilities, 2) those students in the Cape Cod Collaborative's Waypoint Academy, and 3) students enrolled in regional schools who are at risk of graduating with no workforce skills.

☑ WIN-WIN (What I Need/What Industry Needs) is a collaborative effort of the Worcester Public Schools, the workforce investment system, and regional economic development agencies including the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and local manufacturers that will prepare youth for skilled careers in Manufacturing. WIN-WIN will connect current WPS students and young adults in need of skills training with an integrated longitudinal pathway that will effectively facilitate the transition of these participants into highly sought-after employees. This training will prepare them for placement in the manufacturing sector and in industry jobs that pay a living wage and hold the promise of a lifelong career. Our program intends to (1) develop and implement a well-coordinated comprehensive and sustainable student and employer system of support that promotes access, success and career entry for students and young adults otherwise not engaged in this area; (2) increase access and enrollment in programs that will prepare individuals for work in this occupational cluster; and (3) increase the persistence and completion rate of students within these areas who are employed and/or enrolled in post-secondary credentials aligned with Advanced Manufacturing.

The total number of new seats to be created within our program is 24. The populations that will be targeted for these seats are as follows: students in our Alternative Education programs; over-aged and under credited youth at our New Citizens Center and young adults who are either unemployed or underemployed. Members of these targeted groups currently have either no access or limited access to Career Technical Education in this trade area.