How career and technology education can help you
Integrating academic skills into a real-world context by providing career-oriented courses, internships, apprenticeships and in-school programs inspires students to be more engaged. That’s just one of the many benefits of career and technology education.
More policymakers, lawmakers and educators are recognizing the value of CareerTech training by expanding programs that emphasize curricula designed around career and college readiness.
Growing participation in CareerTech programs is among the many new goals we’ve set at Oklahoma CareerTech. They include increasing the number of K-12 students participating in CareerTech programs from 138,000 today to 150,000 within five years. At the state’s 29 technology centers, our goal is to grow full-time program enrollments from 30,000 to 40,000 during the same period.
Read more on the Oklahoma CareerTech website.
GED earners may be able to get college credit
Oklahoma CareerTech adult education and family literacy students who earn their GED diplomas may now be able to earn college credit for their scores at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology.
Students who score 175 or higher on GED test subjects are eligible to receive college credit for certain classes at OSUIT in Okmulgee.
“Using a student's GED score for college credit opens the doors for students to continue working on their career pathways,” said Letha Bauter, director of adult education and family literacy at the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. “A successful score on the GED should be rewarded in Oklahoma as a student moves forward. Millions of people nationally have passed the GED test and gone on to college, career and technical education and better jobs.”
Oklahoma CareerTech oversees the state’s adult education and family literacy program, which offers high school equivalency programs like the GED.
Read more on the Oklahoma CareerTech website.
Project Lead The Way honors 10 tech centers
Ten Oklahoma technology centers received Distinguished High School honors from Project Lead The Way.
Named to the honor were Caddo Kiowa, Central, Francis Tuttle Pre-Engineering Academy, Kiamichi-Idabel, Meridian, Metro Tech STEM Academy, Mid-America, Moore Norman, Tri County and Western-Burns Flat.
The PLTW Distinguished Program Recognition celebrates districts and schools committed to helping students own their education by increasing student access, engagement and achievement in their PLTW programs, according to the PLTW website.
PLTW supports teachers as they engage students in computer science, engineering and biomedical science. For more information about the program, visit the PLTW website.
Hall of Fame nominations open
Nominations have opened for the next class in the Oklahoma CareerTech Hall of Fame.
The deadline to submit nominations is Dec. 31. The induction banquet is tentatively scheduled for October 2024.
Criteria and nomination instructions can be found on the Oklahoma CareerTech website.
Metro Tech trains students at 911 call center
Oklahoma County’s new 911 call center is doubling as a classroom for Metro Technology Centers students.
With a 2019 bond, Metro Tech built an $18 million public safety academy on its South Bryant campus; the academy includes the county’s 911 call center, where students will learn what it takes to be a dispatcher from those doing the job.
The facility also means Metro Tech did not have to build a center just for training, Superintendent and CEO Aaron Collins told KOCO in Oklahoma City.
Read more and watch a video on the KOCO website.
Useful links
Follow us on Twitter at @okcareertech and find us on Facebook at OklahomaCareerTech and on Instagram at oklahomacareertech and read our blog, Oklahoma CareerTech Delivers. Find our podcast at https://www.ctconversations.org/.
For news about Oklahoma’s CareerTech System, subscribe to CareerTech communications.
State Agency Assistance at a Glance
National Center for Research in Career and Technical Education
To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully. -- Tryon Edwards
