Chesterfield County officials outline CTE expansion and surge in work-based learning

Chesterfield County Public Schools leaders gave a briefing to a county board meeting on the district’s career and technical education programs, planned expansion of the Hull Street technical center and results from the district’s work-based learning efforts.

The presentation said roughly 27,000 Chesterfield students in grades 6–12 — about 43% of that population — participate in CTE-related courses, and the system expects more than 9,200 industry-recognized certifications this year. Chad Macklin, director of CTE and director of Chesterfield County Public Schools Online, told the board the tech center campuses are oversubscribed and an expansion is intended to add capacity and new industry labs.

Why this matters: School officials said the programs connect students to local employers, increase on‑ramps into the workforce and produce measurable economic returns. Katie Stokes, coordinator of work-based learning, told the board the district tracked 31,585 student work-based learning experiences this year, and that business partnerships have grown from about 107 partners five years ago to roughly 545 today.

Macklin summarized the scale and the need for expansion. He said the district runs about 30 year‑one and year‑two programs at the tech center and received about 3,600 program applications from 2,200 students…