OkAPEX celebrates 40 years of helping Oklahoma business
OkAPEX is celebrating 40 years of helping Oklahoma businesses secure billions of dollars in government contracts and sales.
Oklahoma CareerTech has offered the assistance through the system’s technology centers since 1986, first under the name Oklahoma Bid Assistance Network and then the Oklahoma Procurement Technical Assistance Center.
In 2023, the program changed its name again to the Oklahoma APEX Accelerator, a name that the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education chose in coordination with a change in the federal grant program under the U.S. Department of War. OkAPEX is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the Department of War, which changed the program name in November 2022.
OkAPEX works with 1,138 companies in Oklahoma; those companies have brought more than $2.5 trillion to the state in the past fiscal year, said Lana Knott, OkAPEX program manager at Oklahoma CareerTech.
Read more on the Oklahoma CareerTech website.
Caddo Kiowa Tech, Cameron University work together on health care degrees
Caddo Kiowa Technology Center and Cameron University are partnering to expand health care degree offerings.
Cameron University received approval in September to develop associate in applied science degrees for occupational therapy assistants and physical therapist assistants. Both degrees will prepare students to pass national exams for licensure.
They will be offered through articulation agreements with CKTC. Students will complete general education and prerequisite courses at Cameron and technical skill courses at CKTC.
Read more on the CKTC website.
Tri County Tech partners on apprenticeship program
Tri County Technology Center is extending its technology education beyond Oklahoma.
The tech center is working with Textron Aviation on a new youth apprenticeship program in Kansas.
Tri County is playing a key role in the aviation company’s engine-building program, the first state-registered aviation youth apprenticeship program in Kansas. The programs will provide paid, hands-on training for high school students beginning at age 16.
Read more on the Bartlesville Radio website.
CV Tech student finds new direction
Canadian Valley Technology Center student Devin Stephens is getting his life back on track through CV Tech’s Project Connect credit recovery program.
Stephens, 18, admits he made mistakes and took his eye off the ball, but when he found out he was going to be a father, he knew he needed to change. Now he’s enrolled in CV Tech’s underground utility line locating program and has a fresh career perspective.
Project Connect helps students who are in danger of dropping out re-focus and earn the core credits they need to finish high school. The one-year UULT program prepares students to locate underground utilities, an essential part of excavation and construction that helps protect workers and homeowners while preventing damage to electric, natural gas, telecommunications and other utility lines.
Stephens is ahead of schedule and could complete his coursework before many of the students in his Mustang High School graduating class, and he has a clear path to employment after completing the program.
Students who complete the required nine-month program have the opportunity to go to work for USIC, an area line locating company. Starting pay is $20 an hour, with daily take-home use of a company vehicle.
Read more on the CV Tech website.
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State Agency Assistance at a Glance
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
OK Career Guide Training Opportunities
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