Eau Claire Area School District outlines career pathways, aims to grow youth apprenticeship to 150 students

The Eau Claire Area School District on its agenda presented a multi-year plan to expand career pathways, industry credentials and youth apprenticeship opportunities so students can enter college, technical programs or the workforce prepared.

District leaders said the work is intended to align curriculum, staffing and budget with career and technical education (CTE) goals and to expand business and community partnerships that support hands-on learning.

District officials framed the work as part of a continuous improvement process guided by the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) framework and said it ties directly to academic and career planning materials already being distributed to students and families.

Michelle Radke, director of secondary programming and postsecondary readiness, told the board the district has developed eight of 16 planned career pathways so far and added the new pathway pages appear in the district’s academic and career planning guide (pages 12–25). Radke said the pathways are designed so students can enter or exit at different points and many include opportunities for dual credit and transcripted college credits.

“Students can enter and exit this pathway during any grade,” Radke said while describing the business pathway. The district highlighted that pathways typically culminate in a recommended youth apprenticeship or equivalent work-based learning experience.

Counselors and teachers described early results. Sam Oksa, a counselor at Memorial High School, said the new pathway templates help counselors produce clearer, shorter conferences with students and families and let students take home a concrete plan. “This gives them that visual detail of saying, here’s where we need to go and here’s what we can do with it,” Oksa said.

Teachers and department leads said the district has rewritten or is rewriting curriculum for 13 CTE courses (agriculture, business and marketing, hospitality and tourism, health science, construction, transportation and information technology are examples named in the presentation). Alyssa Schroeder, family and consumer science teacher and department chair at North High School, described curriculum-writing work and a state HOSA grant that supported reestablishing a HOSA chapter and student participation in state leadership activities.

Staff identified industry-recognized credentials that will be available through pathways: the presentation named Microsoft Office Specialist in the business pathway and, for the health sciences pathway, credentials and training such as CNA, EMR and EMT obtained through partnerships with postsecondary providers. Radke said the district commonly partners with CVTC for some credentialing and academy experiences.

The presentation listed several active business and grant partnerships: Manufacturing SOS Alliance (which supplied equipment and teacher training at North High), Lippert Manufacturing (sponsoring a Lippert Welding Academy and a welding youth apprenticeship), Pablo Group and the Eau Claire Schools Foundation (helping economically disadvantaged students access CNA programs), and Healthcare Workforce Training Institute (supporting CNA credentialing). Staff also cited a DWD grant as a funding source for some equipment and programming.

Youth apprenticeship expansion was a central goal. The district reported 45 students currently participating in youth apprenticeship programs districtwide and set a five-year target of 150 students. Britney Holden, youth apprenticeship coordinator and business and marketing teacher at Memorial, said apprenticeships now cover 16 program areas and cited growth at Memorial High School from 18 apprentices last year to 27 this year.

“We are hoping to start our first annual career fair” to open apprenticeship and employer connections to sophomores and juniors, Holden said, describing plans to broaden student access to employer conversations and interviews.

Presenters outlined next steps: finish the remaining eight pathways (to be published online and in next year’s guide as they are completed), begin an expanded K–12 academic and career planning project, continue curriculum writing and identify facilities and equipment needs, and convene industry advisory boards in spring to review and refine curriculum and pathways.

The board asked about access for students with disabilities and costs to families for postsecondary offerings. Radke said the district is partnering with special education and programs such as Project SEARCH and with CVTC for some hospitality training; she acknowledged the district did not highlight all inclusion programming in the slide deck but said work is underway and will be made clearer in future presentations.

Board members praised the systematic approach and urged staff to reduce barriers so students and families can more easily find and use the opportunities described.

The district said the work is funded through a mix of local budget alignments, federal and state CTE funds (including Perkins-related funding), targeted grants and partner contributions; staff said they are intentionally aligning budgets with the program needs identified during curriculum development.

Next steps listed by presenters were to complete the remaining pathways, start the larger academic and career planning project across K–12, publish pathways online as they are finalized and convene advisory boards so employers can evaluate and refine the curriculum and work-based learning offerings.