ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – February is CTE Month, when educators highlight their Career and Technical Education programs that are preparing students for their futures.
The Delta Schoolcraft Intermediate School District (ISD) offers a range of CTE courses, including careers in education, IT essentials, product design and development, machining, building trades, automotive, welding, and health occupations.
“We get about 325 students a year from six local high schools that come here to learn skills, sometimes for their careers and sometimes just enrichment skills so that later in life they can work on their vehicles or build a house,” explained CTE Director Trent Bellingar.
Students get hands-on experience in their fields of study. Machining student Ryleigh Burmeister is currently working on a major project.
“I always start with my sketch so that way I know that this is actually what I want to do,” she said. “This is a piece of countertop with an 8 x 8 checkerboard with inch-wide pieces.”
Many students, like Burmeister, are already on their way to pursuing higher education.
“I just got accepted into the college I want to go to for this,” said Burmeister. “It can give me the time to show more things that I learned and prove to myself that I can make it.”
Some are getting a head start with work-based learning.
“In the morning, I get to come here,” said second-year welding student Blake Pfiester. “Then in the afternoon, I go to work and then I get real-life experience and get paid to do it.
Pfiester says that on-the-job experience gives him a new level of knowledge about the industry.
“A shop in high school can only show you so much,” he said. “There’s so much more to the trade that I didn’t realize until I actually got a job in a welding career.”
Escanaba High School senior Brooklyn LaMarche is one of only two ISD students to earn a Child Development Associate credential.
“I had to do a lot of research on health and food and safety and all that,” LaMarche explained. “I had to take a test at Bay College. I had to do 180 observation hours where I work at the Country Schoolhouse, and then I also had to do an observation by the state to see if I was eligible or not.”
All that work has equipped her with one of the necessary credentials to work as a lead teacher in any of the state’s Great Start Readiness preschool programs.
“That’s starting to become a higher-wage position, because we don’t have enough of them,” said Bellingar. “It’s nice to see that the state is putting emphasis on early childhood and that CTE is able to help students earn that credential, help them find jobs right after high school, and explore what their future might look like after they enter the career field.”
“Anything that has to do with the mind and how kids think and work, that’s always been interesting to me,” LaMarche said. “[CTE] definitely helped me a lot.”
Bellingar says CTE programs are beneficial for both the students enrolled in them and for the surrounding community.
“We are funded hugely through a millage,” he said. “We want to thank all of our community members and taxpayers for supporting us. We want them to know that we are spending those dollars responsibly to help youth be skilled, and we’re trying to show them what opportunities are here. Knowing that one of our biggest exports is our youth, if we can get them to stay here, our local community is better off for it.”
This CTE month, the Delta Schoolcraft ISD encourages students to see how a career and technical education course could benefit them.
“Sometimes CTE is looked at as a second choice for students,” Bellingar said. “We’re trying to raise those barriers of parents and students thinking that CTE is just for a trades-bound student or a certain track student. It’s really for anybody.”
Students and families interested in CTE programs through the Delta Schoolcraft Intermediate School District can visit the ISD’s website or Facebook page or call (906) 786-9300. Students can also talk to their school counselor about connecting with the ISD.
