TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple High School Career and Technical Education (CTE) Department is celebrating its continued impact on TISD students after posting some impressive results during the 2021-2022 school year.
The Temple High School CTE department released those numbers as part of the program’s year-end celebration. A total of 186 students combined to earn 243 industry based certifications during the 2021-2022 academic year. Those certifications covered 15 different disciplines. By comparison, 150 students combined to earn 184 certifications in the previous school year. The CTE department also qualified 40 students for state competitions and completed 244 service-based learning projects and events. Both of those totals are more than double the number from the 2020-2021 school year. The increased number of students earning certifications is a particular point of pride for the department because of the direct impact it has on their ability to get hired.
“When students earn industry recognized certifications, this shows employers they are ready to meet the technical challenges the workplace presents,” said Denise Ayres, director of CTE for Temple schools. “It shows students have the knowledge and skill necessary to be value add to a team and it shows these students will need less on the job training than someone without this knowledge and skill, thus, they are ready to jump right into the work at hand.”
The Temple High School CTE program features 13 different career clusters. Those clusters encompass 20 programs of study and 87 different courses. More than 2,100 students took at least one CTE course this year, with many of those students taking multiple CTE classes. That translates to 89 per cent of Temple High School students participating in the department’s offerings. There are also CTE offerings at the middle school level and 35 per cent of eighth graders at Bonham and Lamar Middle Schools participated in CTE this school year. The higher number of accomplishments continues a department-wide trend of increases over the last five years. Ayres says the CTE department’s partnerships with local businesses are a big reason the program continues to grow.
“The increased number of students earning an industry based certification as well as the increased number of certifications earned demonstrates the workforce aligned education happening across Temple ISD’s CTE programs,” Ayres said. “Partnerships with local businesses enable us to keep education relevant and meaningful and these successes exemplify workforce readiness as a priority across CTE programs.”