CCSD’s Career Education Program Grows

BY BARBARA P. JACOBY

The Cherokee County School District’s career education program is soaring to new heights as it prepares students for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

The school district long has offered an outstanding career, technical and agricultural education (CTAE) program. And, over the past five years, it has taken important steps to improve.

A driving force in the improvement has been participation in the Cherokee County Workforce Collaborative, made up of business and industry, economic development, technical college and school leaders.

Through this collaboration, the school district has better aligned its programs with local employer needs, as well as opportunities for continuing education at technical colleges. A recent example has been the school district’s launch of the career pathway for unmanned aircraft systems and flight operations.

The flight program is one of two the school district offers at the Cherokee College & Career Academy (C3), which was established last school year with a pathway for cybersecurity. Career programs offered at C3, which is housed on the ACTIVE Academies campus in Canton, are open to all CCSD high school students who choose to leave their campus to come to C3 for electives. Bus transportation now is available at no charge for students who cannot drive themselves.

Another highlight of the collaboration is the development of the annual Skilled Professions Signing Day, which celebrates graduating seniors who are entering the skilled workforce. The collaboration also led to the establishment of the Georgia Be Pro Be Proud initiative. It brings a mobile classroom to high schools and middle schools across Georgia, including in CCSD, to teach students about careers through hands-on activities.

CCSD now has 38 career pathway programs, offering high school students even more opportunities to explore careers, learn job skills and earn industry certifications.

In addition to the new programs offered at C3, the school district began offering Energy and Power: Generation, Transmission and Distribution at Cherokee High School this year, with the support of a $25,000 Workforce for Georgia grant, funded by Georgia Power and the Georgia Foundation for Public Education. Other recent program additions include two new agriculture career pathways at Creekview High School: agricultural mechanics/ electrical systems and veterinary science, which complement the popular equine science program.

This year, to raise awareness about its career education programs, the school district started a new campaign. Every week, a different career pathway is highlighted on CCSD’s website and social media. The pathway profile posts share information about each program, including potential industry certifications, extracurricular opportunities, jobs that the courses prepare students for, salary ranges and local and area employers. The pathways profiled so far are posted at www. cherokeek12.net/content2/careers.

As part of the campaign, CCSD also published its first course catalog focused solely on career pathways. The Focus on the Future guide was distributed to all eighthgraders, to use with their parents as they review elective options for high school. The guide also is posted on the CCSD website, so all students and parents can review it: www.cherokeek12.net/news/ctaehandbook-2022.