Career and Technical Education
The St. Johnsbury Academy Department of Career and Technical Education prepares students for both postsecondary education and the world of work. It provides educational opportunities covering industry specific skill training and credentialing, general employability skills, academic and career skill integration, and personal enrichment to students from high schools across the Caledonia Essex Technical Education Region. The Department prepares these students for current and future educational and workplace opportunities through hands-on learning, authentic workplace experiences, and classroom instruction.
Courses are offered in the following career clusters:
– Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resources
– Arts and Communication
– Architecture and Construction
– Business
– Hospitality and Tourism
– Human Services
– Information Technology
– Manufacturing
– Transportation, Distribution and Logistics
Many of our classes can be taken without prerequisites, as single entities, without intending further study. They provide important benefits to our students including career awareness and exploration, applied learning of academic skills, and an array of other outcomes, such as positive habits of mind, strong thinking skills, and the opportunity to learn about self and others. Some of these courses also provide in-depth knowledge and experience in a specific career field.
The courses fall into three general categories.
– Core Courses provide foundational thinking skills, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, academic skills and communication skills.
– Cluster Courses provide a beginning knowledge of a career cluster, general workplace skills, and continue to build on the learning outcomes begun in the Core Courses.
– Pathway Courses target a specific career pathway providing marketable skills and paths to postsecondary education and training.
Core Courses
Regardless of an individual’s career interests, there are core learning outcomes necessary to all successful people. The following course is suggested for students focusing on Career and Technical Education or any student interested in career awareness and exploration. As detailed on the sample 4-year program of study, other core courses for those focusing on Career and Technical Education include:
-- Computer Literacy
-- Critical Skills
-- Computer Applications and Technology
-- Technical Communications I and II.
Cluster Courses
These courses introduce students to different areas of technical study. Students search for their place within the world of work while experiencing hands-on activities within a career cluster. They provide skills that are transferable to all aspects of life such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and self-awareness and, as such, are powerful learning tools regardless of career interest. Thus, these courses are open to all students, regardless of their level of interest in a specific career pathway.
Pathway Courses
Pathway courses focus on specific career pathway content and employment/postsecondary outcomes while providing the breadth of experience necessary to advance in that pathway and to move into other occupational areas within the cluster. Additionally each pathway aims to prepare students not only for employment in today’s market but to handle the future challenges they will face.
For information regarding the Technical Education Department, please contact the Director of Technical Education, Brad Hull, Ph.D. at bhull@stjacademy.org
Pre-Technical Course Offerings
Applied Technologies Center
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