The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District provides career and technical education to prepare all students to meet the changing demands of today’s work force with programs ranging from IT services, Human Services, Engineering and Cooperative Work Experience.
KPBSD Superintendent Clayton Holland explains the program and possibilities.
“The Career and Technical Education pathways that we’re developing as a district; so we have a lot going on with CTE, but we’re looking at how we as a district focus those in so we can start in middle school and then when we’re in high school getting a certificate whether it’s for IT or whether it’s getting a CNA as you’re in school or construction pathway. We have kids that are getting wielding certs now, maybe they finish at KPC as part of what we are doin with Jump Start. They are getting hired right-away. Building those pathways recognizing obviously that not all students go to post-secondary education-that some are going right into a field, a career field, or some vocational education instead of college. Really trying to create that opportunity for all of our students.”
The school district’s programs contribute to an individual’s academic knowledge base, higher-order reasoning ability, problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, and provide safe, occupational-specific skills necessary for economic independence as a productive and contributing member of society.
In the most recent revision on the Career and Technical Curriculum, two courses were developed to explicitly teach the Alaska Employability Standards and to also embed the ideas into the other course offerings.
Current offering found in the curriculum include: Business and Information Systems Cluster, Human Services Cluster, Industrial Engineering Cluster and Cooperative Work Experience Cluster. Within these cluster groups more than 40 specific courses are either available on site, available through remote, available through KPC (UAA), or offered by educational partners.
Link to KPBSD Career and Technical Education Facebook Page: Click Here