95th Annual Illinois Association for Career and Technical Education Conference

The session will focus on the steps taken to implement and run a summer internship program within our region. Participants will hear about the challenges and celebrations involved in putting together a paid internship program across multiple career areas and school districts. Participants will walk away with valuable insights as to the challenges of running a program and copies of the documents used within our region.

In high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, especially in Manufacturing, Engineering, Technology, and Trades (METT) pathways, paraprofessionals play a vital role in supporting student learning. Attendees will learn how they assist students to master technical skills and academic content while ensuring safety with tools and machinery. Collaborating with instructors, paraprofessionals provide individualized support and accommodations, offering extra guidance when students face challenges, both in and out of the classroom. Paraprofessionals can assist students to develop critical real-world skills like problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration.

Explore research and hear first-hand from an exemplar school district that successfully collaborated with their local community colleges for equitable early college credit access. This session will explore best practices for early college credit setup, assessment, and maintenance. Attendees will gain additional insight into early college credit programming and have a chance to collaborate with peersto continue to hone their equity lens.

How can you determine when to introduce a new CTE program or phase out an existing one? Unraveling the complex web of labor market data is challenging. The difficulty is often exacerbated by suggestions from well-intentioned board members and high-level administrators, which sideline data-driven decision-making. Colleges or Workforce Innovation Boards may have access to data firm reports (such as Lightcast or Chmura) that aid in these endeavors. However, ineffective utilization of these reports can overlook the broader context. This session will present a rubric for use at your institution to evaluate the growth potential of CTE programs and identify those that should be gradually removed from your offerings. Mapping backward from IDES employment and wage data, to refined data sets by data firms, to the program level, participants will be able to create a weighted rubric to assess program viability for current and future CTE programs.