Canyons District outlines CTE partnerships, apprenticeships and adult-training grants on district podcast

Mark Mataya, administrator at Entrada Adult High School, told the districtpodcast Connect Canyons that Canyons School DistrictCareer and Technical Education programs connect students and adult workers to local employers through partnerships, pre-apprenticeships and grants.

Mataya said those employer partnerships help the district tailor training to local labor needs and create direct pathways into jobs. "Our businesses out in our local community are vital. They're part of our community, right?" he said, adding that the district asks employers what skills they seek so schools can prepare students accordingly.

Nut graf: The discussion explains how CTE programs aim to meet local employer demand while giving students and adult learners practical skills and upward mobility. Mataya described specific local partnerships, classroom-to-worksite learning and grants that support both high school students and adult employees.

Among the partnerships Mataya described, Entrada has worked with McNeil's Auto Care to develop a pre-apprenticeship for mechanic skills and with Focus Engineering for an off-campus engineering class that teaches computer-aided drafting (AutoCAD) on a business site. He also highlighted the district's CTEC program, which offers cybersecurity, cosmetology, welding, diesel mechanics, criminology and business programs; an engineering program at Alta High School; and an "eBay building" innovation space used for hands-on learning.

Mataya outlined a workplace-education effort at Merit Medical, one of the valley's largest employers. "We partnered with them, and we actually put teachers at their factory," he said, describing a federal grant that places teachers at Merit Medical so workers can take English and soft-skills classes before or after shifts. Mataya estimated Merit Medical employs "1,200, 13 hundred employees" and said the training aims to prepare workers for quality-control and other upward-mobility positions inside the company.

The podcast also addressed entrepreneurship and how CTE can seed small-business creation. Mataya described a culinary-class example in which a local caterer visited a class, taught students skills including how to spatchcock a chicken, and later took a student as an intern. That student returned after graduation and was later working as a sous chef, Mataya said, offering an example of how a single class can spark a career.

Mataya noted district and external grant activity supporting CTE. He said Entrada holds a grant from the STEM Action Center that funded teacher training and that Entrada is applying for a National Science Foundation grant to expand CTE options in adult education. He also said federal grant funds support the workplace classes at Merit Medical.

The podcast reiterated an administrative graduation requirement in the district: students must earn at least one credit in a career course to receive a high school diploma. Mataya encouraged students to go beyond that single credit and said the district aims to make CTE programs "as real as they can be out in the real world." "CTE is basically where you're taking all of the learning from all your other core subjects and then applying it to a real world context," he said.

The episode closed with Mataya and host Frances Cook pointing to the districtinnovation center as a future site for expanded CTE programming and with Mataya urging students and parents to try CTE courses. "If a student comes to Canyons to do any of our CTE stuff, you're going to get a top notch experience," he said.

Ending: The district continues to expand employer partnerships, seek outside grant funding and develop an innovation center to broaden hands-on CTE offerings for both high school and adult learners.