The Career and Technical Education celebration is this month. CTE is an LBCC program that helps students that are in the program get linked to employers in the regen for their career. They also help prepare them for high-wage and high-demand careers. CTE is also emphasizing problem-solving, creativity, teamwork and critical-thinking skills.
The CTE celebration first started in 2017 and the first national CTE “signing day” was in 2015 where the president of the CTE program Greg Hamann invited LBCC to come back the following year and present.
How the college selects students that are going into the CTE program is what they call “first-come, first-served” because they know that it's competitive and a lot of students want to be in the CTE program.
During CTE Month, the first week of February focuses on health care programs. The health care programs that are a part of the CTE are:
Dental assistant
Diagnostic imaging
Exercise and sport science
Medical assistant
Nursing
Nursing assistant
Occupational therapy assistant
Phlebotomy
Public health
Sleep technology
Surgical technician
The typical wages that the health care CTE program students can earn in their jobs are:
Dental assisting - $48,358
Occupational therapy assistant - $65,167
Diagnostic imaging - $76,777
Medical assistant - $41,007
Medical coding and reimbursement - $52,762
Nursing - $94,950
Surgical technology - $59,762
Phlebotomy - $42,717
Sleep technician - $52,697
Nursing assistant - $ 35,884
The signing day this year will be completely virtual over Zoom on April 15 from 9-10 am. There will be pre-recorded sessions from presenters and some live presentations in breakout rooms. The Zoom link will be posted on the website when the date is closer.
Covid has affected the CTE program in many ways, including how many things are virtual and it has been hard for most of the programs. The programs that were doing projects and labs and more in-person are now presenting instruction over Zoom, along with in-person lab sessions.
Tirah Rich is a diagnostic imaging student who is getting her associate degree in science but focusing on diagnostic imaging. She knew she wanted to be a part of the CTE program when she was little, when she wanted to go into radiology, and it had a high pass rate and was more affordable. She’s in a two-year program that learns all the information for a four-year program in a two-year program.
Covid has made her program harder in some ways. The program was already set up with some online classes. The only thing that COVID has affected is the restriction on how many people can be in the lab at a time and the communication between the students so that they can help each other with the work where they need help.
The biggest challenge to the CTE program is not having enough time, she said. Rich said the program isn’t easy because whenever you have extra time after doing the main assignments then you are reviewing and studying the material in order to do well. The biggest highlight is the connections with the peers and staff. Even with the pandemic the staff and students find a way to get connected to study together.
The biggest benefit of the CTE program is joining an open door to other opportunities. LBCC is helping the students find the right universities for where they want to go for a career. In the health care portion of the CTE program due to covid, the nursing students are helping administer the COVID vaccine.
At a glance:
What: Celebration of CTE
When: The month of February
Where: Linn-Benton Community College campus
What are the weeks of celebrations: Feb. 1-7: health care; Feb. 8- 14: information technology; Feb. 15- 21: industrial and manufacturing; Feb. 22-28: agriculture and culinary programs
Website: www.linnbenton.edu/about-lbcc/news/oregon-celebrates-cte-month.php
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