TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FOR Essential Jobs

by Michael S. Ellegood, PE, President, Yavapai County Education Foundation

The Prescott area needs a skilled workforce. We need doctors and lawyers and engineers, but we also need welders, firefighters, nurses, mechanics and electricians.

We have a trifecta of issues: an essential and largely unmet need for skilled workers, a college education that is increasingly out of reach for many, and a cohort of young people dissatisfied with traditional schooling.

How does the Greater Prescott community address these issues?

There is a statewide program called Career and Technical Education that allows students to engage in a hands-on schooling program in one of several needed technologies ranging from the health sciences to manufacturing skills and construction or 61 other career/trade areas recognized by the Arizona Department of Education.

Here in western Yavapai County, there is a special district, Mountain Institute Career and Technical Education District (MICTED).

MICTED is a joint effort between our public school districts and Yavapai College so students in Ash Fork, Bagdad, Chino Valley, Mayer, Prescott, Prescott Valley/Humboldt, Seligman and all of western Yavapai County can get training/schooling and an industry certificate.

Let’s look at four of the 22 programs:

Medical assisting — qualifies an individual to work in a physician’s office or a health care clinic providing administrative and certain direct medical activities under the direction and supervision of a doctor or nurse. Medical assistants can draw blood, perform initial examinations, collect medical history and administer medications, including injections.

Nursing assisting — qualifies an individual to work in a longerterm health care setting such as a rehabilitation center, a nursing home, senior living center or similar clinical environment.

Both programs enable graduating high school seniors to sit for a certification test and become certified medical assistants or certified nursing assistants.

Instruction is held at the Yavapai College Health Care Campus in Prescott Valley using YC classrooms and laboratories.

Fire science

“Granite Mountain Hotshots” three words that explain every Yavapai County resident’s respect and understanding of the commitment of our firefighters. And yet, some communities still do not have a full complement of these important public servants. MICTED has developed a program to address this need.

Fire Science is a two-year, intensive program to introduce future firefighters to wildland and structure firefighting. The program includes basic skills development, hazmat first responder training and fire protection systems. It allows students to become certified by the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC), an internationally recognized standard of professional qualification.

Welding technologies

Welding may seem a simple task to many of us. Not so, success demands care, skill and much practice. Think about the welding on your next drive over a steel bridge. Thousands of welds, each one critical to your safety.

The two-year program in welding covers arc welding, oxy-acetylene and MIG welding. This includes an intensive, hands-on experience in structural welding to enable graduates to work on major steel fabrication projects such as buildings and bridges. Graduates from the program can apply to test for American Welding Society Certification, an internationally recognized qualification that certifies an individual as a welding professional.

Students also are taught overhead welding, one of the more challenging welding operations.

A professional welder can encounter a shower of sparks descending from overhead, which is both a distraction and a genuine safety concern, moreover, the visibility is often limited when working from below and the weld subject is backlit.

Read more online at www.prescottlivingmag.com/ essential-jobs.