24 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY december 5-11, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com Over the past decade, California has pushed to promote trade schools to increase its skilled workforce in high-demand jobs. According to the state Employment Development Department, the top five middle-skill occupations in the coastal region (which includes Monterey County) are nursing assistants, medical assistants, teacher assistants, heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, and licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses. Their annual incomes range from $31,000 to $55,000 (the median income for one person in Monterey County is $74,150). The highest-paying trade jobs nationwide are in the health care industry. Ultrasonographers and respiratory therapists can expect to earn $90,000 or higher; both trainings are offered at two-year institutions of higher learning. California has invested millions in improving and diversifying CTE programs across the state, focusing on in-demand trade skills. CTE classes are treated similar to arts or foreign languages, in that one year of CTE can be a requirement for students to graduate high school. Trades are growing in popularity. During the spring of 2022, two-year colleges saw increased enrollment in programs such as construction (over 19 percent, or 11,140 students), mechanics (11.5 percent, or 9,950 students) and culinary (12.7 percent, 6,170 students), according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Last fall, associate and certificate programs grew by 2.2 and 9.8 percent, respectively, faster than bachelor’s programs which grew by less than 1 percent. In recent years, California has launched two new programs to provide and promote career pathways for in-demand trades and professions that require different levels of education, ranging from adult school programs to four-year education. Those include the Golden State Pathways Program—which focuses on high-paid jobs in industries that are projected to grow exponentially such as health care, renewable energy and robotics—an initiative the California Department of Education has invested $470 million into. There is also the K-16 Education Collaboratives, also aiming to create collaborations with school districts, colleges, universities and regional employers. The goals are to make it easier for students to transition to post-high school education and make it easier to transfer after finishing high school. The program also focuses on school districts with higher concentrations of low-income students. Several local school districts are part of K-16 Education Collaborative, including MPUSD (Marina and Seaside high schools), Salinas Union High School (El Sausal Middle School and Alisal High School) and Soledad Unified. “The K-16 Collaborative encourages our districts/schools to look for ways to blend these funds to create career pathways sustainably, in order to help students quickly reach their educational goals and transition into high-wage jobs,” says Roberto Núñez, director for student success at Monterey County Office of Education. “It’s really pushing us to collaborate on levels that we haven’t before—with our community college partners and with CSUMB—to align the work that we’re doing, where we can look at the curriculum,” Sanchez says. “How can we link this to a college program?” Regional pathways are also a guide, where students can stop or continue until they reach their destination. It can be a straight line, or they can take breaks in between and return as needed. For example, if a student enrolls in a health care pathway, they have different options that can be stackable like climbing a ladder. A student from Soledad enrolled in the Patient Care Pathway has three postsecondary options: enrolling at the Salinas Adult School for Certified Nursing Assistant certification, enrolling in Hartnell for a two-year Registered Nurse program, or pursuing a bachelor’s of science at CSUMB. Students enrolled in a K-16 pathway are also required to take up to 12 units of college credit, which gives them a leg up to enroll in a two- or four-year college. “Our primary focus is to have students receive the greatest mobility, like the highest-paying job possible in the shortest amount of time,” says Ashley Selck, the K-16 Collaborative coordinator for the Northern Central Coast region. This means pushing for students to earn a living wage, which in this area would be at least $31/hour. Rob Appel is director of Mission Trails Regional Occupational Program, a Salinas Union High School District campus that is dedicated to CTE programs, where nearly 6,000 students were enrolled last year, studying 13 different industry sectors. Appel highlights the importance of collaborating with colleges so they can transition smoothly from CTE to college programs. “They can get additional training and they need those certifications that would allow them to jump into those positions that are going to pay them at a higher wage,” he says. There is state support for the these efforts. In 2023, the Central Coast region received a three-year, $18.1 million grant through California’s Community Economic Resilience Fund, CERF, to expand or build new education-to-career pathways and address equity gaps. On a Monday morning, students at Soledad High School are attentively watching a video with their instructor, Lyndsey Alvarez, and spotting what the nurse assistant on screen did wrong—there’s a problem with moving the patient’s head, and not closing the curtains to respect the patient’s privacy before starting other tasks. This is part of the patient care pathway. Soledad Unified started a patient care pathway two years ago, where high school students learn about patient care from theory to practice. During the first year, they learn medical terminology. In the second year, students do more hands-on training, including checking vital signs and patient comfort levels by practicing with mannequins (or watching this video of a nursing assistant in action). “A patient care tech is a little bit like a nursing assistant, so they get a lot of the hands-on opportunities to explore their bedside skills and communication skills,” Alvarez says. Some programs at Soledad and in other districts offer even more training, with hands-on opportunities and CTE instructor Vanesa Cano talks with students Tabatha Cuevas and Zaniya Maldonado before they make their own dental plaster. Both 15-year-olds are exploring the dentistry module in the Patient Care and Personal Wellness CTE class at Marina High. Teacher Nicolas Defendis also acts as a supervisor for students who are enrolled in Soledad Unified School District’s Education Pathway. They double as interns for SUSD, working at an elementary school. Marina High School students William Virtue and Kush McBride, both 15, learn about dogs’ anatomy on a poster, then study it in 3-D with a stuffed animal. Celia Jiménez Celia Jiménez Celia Jiménez
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==