Sixth and
seventh graders in more than a dozen North Carolina school districts will
benefit from more focused career exploration and planning through a new grant
program aimed at expanding Career and Technical Education to students earlier
in middle school.
Under the new
initiative enacted by the General Assembly last year and in collaboration with
the North Carolina Education and Workforce Innovation Commission, the State Board
of Education last week approved individual grants of up to $50,000 each to 14
districts that bid for the competitive funding. The total funding for the
current year is $700,000 and could increase to as much as $1 million for the
2018-19 school year.
The additional
funding is designated for hiring additional licensed personnel in career and
technical education areas, career development coordination areas, and support
service areas needed to CTE programs to sixth and seventh grade students.
John Kirkman,
interim CTE director for the Department of Public Instruction, said the
additional funding will help districts strengthen programming to help younger
students start thinking earlier about possible careers and their high school
courses.
“We’re excited
about the additional opportunities that this grant is going to provide to
middle school students across the state,” Kirkman said. “I hope we’ll be able
to build upon it as it demonstrates success for students.”
Districts receiving
the grants vary in how they plan to use the funding – from hiring CTE teachers
for career-specific classes such as coding or technology engineering to hiring
career development coordinators to deliver and organize career exploration
activities such as job shadowing, career days or visits to college campuses.
The 14 districts
winning the grants this year are eligible for additional funding for up to
seven years and will receive priority in succeeding funding cycles. Other
districts are invited to apply as well. The application deadline for the next
grant cycle is Aug. 1.
These following
districts received this year’s CTE expansion grants:
- Alexander County
- Alleghany County
- Avery County
- Carteret County
- Currituck County
- Franklin County
- Greene County
- Hickory City
- Johnston County
- Moore County
- Mount Airy City
- Perquimans
County
- Rutherford
County
- Warren County
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