Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Career Technical Education topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Coweta County board highlights Accelerated Career program as pathway to local jobs and expanded pipelines
Summary
Mark Whitlock briefed the Coweta County Board of Education on the Accelerated Career program, tracing its local origins, linking it to state legislation and a student apprenticeship success story, and outlining plans to expand career pipelines including potential teacher pathways.
Mark Whitlock, CEO of the Central Educational Center and system director of public policy, told the Coweta County Board of Education on Nov. 12 that the Accelerated Career program began locally and has grown into a statewide model connecting students directly to technical colleges and employers.
Whitlock said the program started after a 2011 industry request for an apprenticeship-style pathway and led to state policy changes, noting "that kicked off a look at public policy in Georgia, which led to Senate Bill 2 in 2015" and subsequent state rules that shaped the program. He said the model requires participating students to complete technical-college requirements as part of their high-school graduation pathway and has produced students who move directly into well-paying local jobs.
A roughly 90-second student video shown to the board illustrated one student's pathway: the student described beginning the program as a freshman, working through apprenticeship-style training in machining and quality maintenance, and receiving a job offer from a local company for an eight-week experience in Germany. "I've been through the program ... I now just bought my first house," the student said in the video.
Whitlock told the board Coweta remains a leader in Accelerated Career enrollment in Georgia and that the program has helped keep graduates in the local workforce: "They build our local community, they live with us, and they help us to build the kind of skill base that helps Coweta attract more investment and more great jobs." He also said staff are exploring how Accelerated Career principles might be applied to other career fields, including potential accelerated pipelines for teachers to address local shortages.
The presentation stressed connections between schools and employers and emphasized that expanded pathways could offer students an early start on postsecondary credentials and local careers. Whitlock concluded by urging continued local and state collaboration to grow the model and noting further details will be shared in future board updates.
