According to the Alabama State Department of Education, Career Tech Education is defined as follows: “CTE is focused on developing the skills of K-12 students and strives to prepare them for postsecondary learning and workforce opportunities. It also provides them with essential leadership skills through participation in student organizations. CTE is learning that works for Alabama.” 

I have been in a CTE course; JROTC counts as a CTE credit. It teaches you leadership skills and provides information on the branch your JROTC is based in. People in JROTC usually start at higher ranks if they join a branch because of their basic knowledge. This goes for many other CTE courses too. If you finish certain CTE courses, you can get certifications in high-demand jobs. 

Many would say we have plenty of CTE courses, but others, including me, say we could have more. In Madison City, we have programs like AFJROTC, FACS, Culinary, Health Science, Business, Engineering, Construction Science, Computer Science, IT Fundamentals, Arts/AV, and Biomed. These seem like a lot, and to put it into perspective, we admittedly have more options for CTE than many other schools have. With the addition of some Career Tech courses to middle school, MCS really stands out, and Athens City Schools doesn’t have anywhere near this amount of variety. That doesn’t mean we can’t do more.

Morgan County offers career clusters such as cosmetology, HVAC, Auto Collision Repair, Early Childhood Development, and Welding. These jobs are in demand, and they offer certifications for them. This makes them certified in this field and would make it very easy for them to get jobs related to this. 

In addition to the traditional Career Tech programs we have in MCS, Madison County has Cosmetology, Precision Machining, Welding, and both Automotive Services and Automotive Collision programs.

Hartselle City offers both Law and Manufacturing Academies. These are two interesting programs that can help prepare students both for later programs in college or careers directly after high school.

Huntsville City is opening a whole new Career Tech Center, which will include over 81,000 square feet of state-of-the-art facilities. It’s anticipated to open in the Fall 2025.

Bob Jones and MCS in general may have a good selection of CTE classes, but the career clusters are often geared toward students who would still go to traditional college. These courses are helpful, but I feel like more diversity could be beneficial to many. What career tech programs could appeal to students who aren’t interested in college and want to go directly into the workforce or only have to complete a job-specific training program after high school? Cosmetology, HVAC, Plumbing, Precision Machining, Auto Collision Repair, or Transportation/Logistics would be interesting additions. Could we get our own state-of-the-art facility? Probably not in our time at Bob Jones, but maybe it could be a serious consideration in the future.