As the school year ramps up, parish schools are concentrating on innovative programs that will offer easier entry into the present job market.
With a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the South Louisiana Community College Evangeline campus on Sept. 16, SLCC announced its entry into building trades instruction and certification.
Designed in cooperation with the Master’s Guild of Acadiana, the Acadiana Homebuilder’s Association and other construction industry groups, SLCC is now offering a ten-week course in residential and commercial carpentry.
The renewed focus on marketable job skills is reaching into parish public schools with a new SLCC-connected college credit program for high school students.
Building on past programs such as Early College High School, the new “Collegiate Technical Academy” (CTA), created during a signing ceremony at the St. Martin School Board office on Sept. 18, offers advanced training in a dual-enrollment program with SLCC.
Industry input into the CTA curriculum will help ensure that participating students, as they earn their high school diploma, can also receive an associate degree or the college-level technical credentials currently in demand by area employers.
College courses will be taught at the College and Career Readiness Center (CCRC) in Breaux Bridge, with bus service from St. Martinville, Breaux Bridge and Cecilia high schools provided.
Offerings will include professional certification classes in nursing, electrical, cosmetology, welding and JROTC. Students will be enrolled in both high school and SLCC as they participate in the program.
At the signing ceremony, Superintendent of Schools Allen Blanchard Jr. said the new program will do more than simply train students in marketable skills.
“Students do much better when they are doing something they want to do. With these offerings we can gain their interest and give them a goal to work towards,” he said.
Blanchard added that many of the 122 students currently enrolled in the CCRC programs would likely have gone to technical schools after graduation, incurring the high cost and often going into debt.
“With this program, there is no cost and no debt,” he said, “ Many students will want to go on with their education, but they can do so with good fall-back job opportunities that are marketable right away.”
