By Hannah Curran, Editor
TRUSSVILLE — The Trussville City Schools (TCS) Career and Technical Education has significantly impacted schools.
The TCS Career and Technical Education program are comprised of nine programs and 1,296 students. All nine programs are career-based and have a sequential curriculum that takes students along a learning path and building their knowledge and skills. As a result, many of these students can earn an industry-recognized credential while in the program, and many of them can participate in workplace learning experiences as well.
“Most of our academies have been in existence since about 2007 or 2008,” Hewitt-Trussville High School (HTHS) Assistant Principal Joy Young said. “By the way, that’s a testament to our teachers to be able to it’s easy to start something, and it’s really difficult to keep it rolling successfully, and our teachers have done an excellent job.”
Young said the most important thing a parent wants for their child is finding their way in life, passion, and a satisfying career. Young explained that these programs do just that.
“They are most commonly known at the high school by the term ‘academies,’ but they are Career and Technical Education Programs supported by some federal and some state funding,” Young said.
The TCS Career and Technical Education program have a Biomedical Sciences program with 196 students and three teachers. Biomedical sciences have five courses, including dual enrollment EMT.
“This course is taught by two of our Trussville firefighters who are certified paramedics,” Young said. “They teach adjunct for Jeff State, and they’ve done an excellent job with our students.”
Young said the students involved in the Biomedical Sciences Program know they want to have a career in healthcare.
The TCS Career and Technical Education program’s largest course is the Business Leadership Program. Six courses are taught by three teachers and have 249 students. The most popular course is the Leadership Hewitt-Trussville class.
“They are learning about civic leadership and Trussville this year,” Young said. “So that’s been an excellent addition to that particular program.”
The TCS Career and Technical Education program also has a Computer Science Program that has 145 students with one teacher.
“It’s maxed out really now, and hopefully, we can start adding another teacher there soon,” Young said. “We’ll be adding a second, advanced placement course next year in this program, it will become AP Computer Science A, and the students will be learning Java programming in that particular class.”
An Electrical Construction class is also offered through the TCS Career and Technical Education program and has 114 students with one teacher. Young explained that this program does lead straight to employment. These students do a lot of projects around the school, for example, the students are rebuilding the benches that are out front of HTHS.
“Most of the students do go straight into the workforce if they choose that particular program, and of course, they get a certification every year as well as their OSHA certification,” Young said.
TCS Career and Technical Education program also offers an Engineering Program.
“Our engineering program, which continues to be very successful and very large with 202 students,” Young said. “We continue to add courses, the newest one being digital electronics, digital runs everything, our computers, our cars. It’s a very tough course we’ve got some really smart guys in that class.”
The Hospitality and Culinary Arts Program has 120 students and one teacher. This course has three programs, including ProStart Curriculum. In addition, young said students involved in this program have the opportunity to help cater large events.
“So Kathy G is one of the big catering companies in town, and she uses our students all the time,” Young said.
TCS Career and Technical Education program has an Academy of Craft Training off-campus in downtown Trussville at the AIDP Training Center, a public-private partnership where the students can go and learn traits that HTHS doesn’t currently offer. For example, though traits include welding, HVAC, building construction, and interior and exterior finishes.
“We transport those students down there every day for two-hour sessions,” Young said. “So we have 12 students this year, we’ll have generally anywhere from 12 to 20 students that go down and take advantage of that, and we’re very thankful that we have that opportunity to offer that.”
Hewitt-Trussville Middle School also offers a program through TCS Career and Technical Education. HTMS Gateway STEM Program has two teachers and 172 students.
“We offer five STEM-based modules,” Young said. “You can see their programming micro bits and using a 3D printer, so they do some pretty high-level stuff there. They do get those students’ high school ready for us for these other programs.”
TCS Career and Technical Education program offers Work-Based Learning, and currently, there are 86 students enrolled in the program. These students will leave campus for a period of time in the afternoon, and they get high school credit for working.
In the first semester, students earned $351,000 and worked 22,100 hours.
