A $5 million state grant received last year aims to help expand career and technical education, or CTE, programs to meet growing demand in careers from aerospace to entrepreneurship, said Ryan Rowe, the district’s CTE director.
The funds will also help expand student access to the regional agency’s roster of the more than 70 existing programs, he said.
First on the list will be aviation and aerospace programs, particularly in drone aviation. Two other new pathways will focus on business and entrepreneurship leadership, as well as construction engineering in trades.
For the drone program, students will be able to earn a federal drone license en route to studying to be a pilot, for an associate’s degree in EV mobility, to a four-year college for aircraft mechanics or a host of other future job opportunities, Rowe said.
“Drones are being used in public safety and a variety of other capacities (such as) agriscience,” he said, referring to the field of food and fiber production. “... We’re going to pilot that in the fall, and then, launch that countywide.”
As of the start of May, roughly 40 students had signed up for the pilot drone program, though Rowe said he wasn’t sure how many would be enrolled.
Ramone Crowe, an aerospace development industry expert of 37 years, is working with the district on the drone program. He complimented district Superintendent Naomi Norman about the agency’s CTE efforts to implement “innovative ideas for the next future workforce” during an April 30 education forum.
Crowe called aerospace “one of the fastest growing” areas of employment, adding, “What the Model T did for the middle class, aerospace can do for the middle class, as well.”
“People are not moving slower, they’re moving faster,” he said. “As you see every day with air travel, there’s not enough workers to maintain the infrastructure we have right now because we’re constantly growing and we’re prone to new innovations, and it’s not all technical.”
The industry, which includes non-technical areas such as the arts and aviation law, can bring six-figure salaries with just a certificate, Crowe said.
The business and entrepreneurial program will also include tourism and sports. Referred to as the BEST program, Rowe said, dual enrolls high schoolers in classes focused on entrepreneurship at Washtenaw Community College, allowing them to graduate with a management certificate on their way to college or to a career with aligned work experience.
“Whether that’s culinary or advanced manufacturing or health care,” he said.
It’s funded out of the grant but in collaboration with WCC and Destination Ann Arbor.
Then, Rowe said the ISD is still looking to expand CTE’s engineering and construction trades pathway for students who want to earn a certificate, trades license, credential or an associate’s degree in construction technology or a bachelor’s in engineering.
Trades were among the biggest example officials cited in CTE growth — and in the need for funding supports.
CTE programs are run through four different groups and nine school districts in Washtenaw County, including Ann Arbor and Whitmore Lake public schools, Ypsilanti Community Schools, and the South and West Washtenaw Consortium.
However, Rowe said even as demand and CTE enrollment grows, not all students have access to all programs.
WISD’s CTE enrollment went from 1,866 in 2021-22 to 3,157 this year compared to a total regional student population that declined by over 1,200 total in that period.
The $5 million — funds awarded through the Michigan Department of Education last year — supports initial costs related to consolidating services identified in a feasibility student from the University of Michigan Youth Policy Lab, as well as other local education stakeholders.
For the new CTE programs, Rowe said it meant financing personnel to help manage capacity, including coordinators for CTE, work-based learning, special populations and grant management, a data and reporting specialist, and a communications specialist.
The term of the 2024 award was two years, and he said they were still looking at funding models to sustain program growth beyond the term.
Moving forward, Rowe said they expected to provide additional opportunities in life sciences, particularly biomedical and biochemical technology offerings that “are really aligned with labor market data and job forecast data.”
Andrew Munson, ISD’s communications specialist, said they’re also looking at expanding in the “business realm,” like insurance.
“Mechatronics is another area,” he said, “where we have some engineering programs that incorporate robotics, we have some machining, but really merging those two, as well.”
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