Beaufort County Schools outlines expansion of CTE pathways, referendum projects and industry partnerships

Karen Gilbert, director for career technical education for Beaufort County Schools, told the district Academic Committee on April 22, 2025, that the district is expanding career and technical education (CTE) pathways, aligning to a newly updated state framework and using referendum funds and local partnerships to add new facilities and programs.

Gilbert said the district now records “a little over 8,000 course enrollments and about 4,000 students” who take one or more CTE courses. She said students who followed CTE pathways from ninth grade in a recent cohort had a 98 percent graduation rate (971 students in that cohort) and that students earned “over 1,400 certifications” last year.

The presentation outlined several near-term and 5-to-10-year plans the district expects to implement. Gilbert told the committee that JROTC will become an official statewide pathway starting next year and that Bluffton High School was selected as one of 30 state pilot sites for an artificial intelligence curriculum. She said the district is coordinating local workforce development credits with Technical College of the Lowcountry and University of South Carolina Beaufort and cited a range of employer partners, including Buford Memorial Hospital, the Hilton Head and Bluffton…