CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION AT CHINO VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL
Go Chino Valley Cougars!
by Angie Johnson-Schmit for TG Magazine
Brian Pereira has a uniquely grass-roots view of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in a rural community. Pereira has been the Assistant Principal and Director of the CTE program at Chino Valley High School (CVHS) in Chino Valley, Arizona, for five years. Before taking on his dual role at CVHS, Pereira worked in the school system in Ash Fork where he served as Assistant Principal/School Counselor/CTE Coordinator.
It was during his time in Ash Fork that Pereira began to really understand the importance of CTE programs and the challenges of communicating the benefits of those programs with parents. He learned he needed to adjust his approach.
“I quickly realized that these kids were brought up in these working-class homes,” he said. “Their parents understand how important skills are and how skills learned for one job can help you in a different job. How one job can lead to another job if the skills are there.”
This realization led him to change the way he talked to parents and students about CTE classes.
“I stopped spitting out statistics and spitting out data to families. Because to most of them, it didn’t stick,” said Pereira. “But, the big picture, how to get a good job and how that can lead to a better one, that did stick.”
He discovered that one thing in particular connected with parents. “What really got their attention was the career paths,” said Pereira. “So, let’s say they start studying automotive, for instance. They knew from their own experience how that could branch off. How you could start with these skills and education at an entry level job and that can lead to the next step up and the next step up. The biggest piece is reversing the idea of let’s get them data. Job data on its own doesn’t explain how these jobs are growing, that this is an opportunity for your kids to earn college credits while they’re still in high school, that learning the trade this way can earn them certifications to help get them in the door when they’re looking for a job.”
Pereira uses that same approach to talk with parents about CTE options at CVHS. But those conversations about CTE classes begin well before high school in Chino Valley.
IT STARTS IN SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE
“It starts in the seventh and eighth grade at the middle school,” Pereira said. “They call it a career exploration class and it’s an opportunity to look at different careers and take a tour of Yavapai College’s CTEC (Career and Technical Education Center). Those middle school programs are growing, too. This year, the middle school was able to bring in a skilled instructor. He was teaching welding out there as a trade. He developed a pretty good welding program, plus he was teaching woodwork, doing finishing work in new homes.”
Those students will meet Pereira even before they come to the high school. “I’ll be working with that instructor to get them some materials,” he said. “And I’ll introduce the kids to what we offer here at the high school, along with what they offer at the college as well.”
Once students move up to the high school, freshmen start with one available CTE program. Pereira said, “In ninth grade, the only CTE program we have available is agriculture. And that’s because it is a three-to-four-year program. So, it takes multiple years to progress through that program.”
Freshmen also have a career exploration program. This was recently revamped to include introductions to various trades, specifically careers, colleges, and scholarships.
CAREER INTEREST PROFILES
“But, the big emphasis,” said Pereira, “is career interest profiles. Students take several online assessments to help them understand what careers they might be interested in. That exploration begins now.”
One thing that is often inspiring for students is the annual tour of Yavapai College’s CTEC building. Pereira is quick to agree that the college’s programs are impressive, with CTE certificate programs running the gamut from culinary to agriculture and 3-D printing.
CHINO VALLEY'S CTE - 8 PROGRAMS
Currently, Chino Valley High School’s CTE program features eight different programs, including bioscience, sports medicine, cybersecurity, welding, agriculture, architectural drafting and design, culinary arts, and business management. Pereira said they review those programs to make sure they are offering relevant education for the real world job market.
“We look at the labor data about the job market and see how we compare with some of those items right there. For instance, five of our eight current programs would fit into career fields identified by the U.S. Bureau of Labor as some of the highest paid and fastest growing occupations. Also, six of the eight programs are also identified as career fields with the most new jobs coming up in the upcoming future.”
Choosing which programs to offer is also influenced by investigating the local job market. We do have a formalized process where we’ll have an end of the year advisory board meeting,” said Pereira. “Plus, throughout the year instructors will meet with different business owners or groups to understand some of the needs that they have.”
Those meetings can lead to service projects which give students an insight into the business, and benefit the community.
Pereira said, “You may have read in the paper about the culinary program between our CTE and the Mountain Institute Career and Technical Education District (MICTED). Students in that shared program had the opportunity to do service projects with a local restaurant, Essence Kitchen. One of those was a dinner for local veterans.”
Pereira praises his CTE staff for helping make that happen.
“Our culinary arts teacher, she’s put a lot of time in there and she was able to get some of the kids jobs in there as well.”
In the end, Pereira thinks students and their families should approach CTE with an open mind.
“If you’re not really set on where you’re going to go to college, then maybe that isn’t the right path for you,” he said.
“I don’t think that going to a vocational school after high school is a bad path, or is a black eye on your family name at all,” said Pereira. “It can be ‘My son is going to the college CTE, they’re going to bypass all the thousands of dollars they might have spent on a four-year degree and they’re going to get right into a career.’ It’s all a matter of approaching this with an open mind and finding the right path to get on for your future.”
