Career Technical Education (CTE) prepares students for the workforce

Almost a year ago, in March 2010, a firm that was about to open a senior assisted living facility in Palm Desert held a job fair to fill 100 openings. More than 2,000 people showed up to apply. One month earlier, the City of Murrieta held its first job fair at its Community Center, and 850 people stood in line, hoping for an opportunity.

This is the state of unemployment in Riverside County. As of December, the seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate was 9.4%. California’s rate was 12.5%, second worst among states. Riverside County’s rate was a staggering 14.2%.

This is not just an employment issue in Riverside County. It's an education issue, and an urgent one.

The pledge of the Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE) is that all students in Riverside County will graduate from high school well prepared for college and the workforce. But that pledge means something entirely different than it did just two years ago. It means county educators must prepare students to succeed in a new workforce, one that’s never existed here before, one that’s just beginning to take shape.

It’s a tremendous challenge. And the Riverside County Superintendent of Schools is forging new alliances across the region to better meet it.

We count powerful allies among Riverside County’s business leadership. In the desert, we’re engaged with the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership. In the western county, we have joined with the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce to imagine a more ambitious role for the chambers’ Business Education Partnership. Year in and year out, one of our strongest partners is Riverside County’s Workforce Investment Board.

At the grassroots level, we have a small army of allies -- the 2,000 businesses which provide internships for our Career Technical Education students and those who take part in our Summer Work Experience Program.

We also have established a partnership with the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and tribal Chairman James Ramos – newly appointed to the California State Board of Education – to provide Career Technical Education to students at Sherman Indian High School.

Foremost, we bring to this challenge the talented leaders and educators of RCOE’s Career Technical Education unit.

RCOE’s Career Technical Education program – incorporating traditional ROP courses – is highly successful because it delivers not just what students want, but what they need.