Marshall County Students Explore Career Technical Programs Offered in High Schools

1 (Photo by Shelley Hanson) John Marshall High School senior Billy Woods shows middle school student Ty Rickman a metalworking machine inside the machine shop on Monday. Approximately 180 students participated in the CTE summer camp.

GLEN DALE – Middle schoolers and incoming freshmen from Marshall County Schools had the chance to try out a variety of career technical education programs Monday at John Marshall High School.

Programs include Agriculture, Automotive Technology, Broadcasting, Business, Culinary Arts, Drafting, Fire/EMT, Information Technology/Project Lead the Way, Computer Science, Project Lead The Way Engineering , therapeutic services, welding and woodworking.

The goal of the fourth annual CTE Summer Camp is to give students a hands-on look at the programs so they can decide which courses they want to take before entering their freshman year at JMHS or Cameron High School.

Approximately 180 students participated in the morning and afternoon sessions.

JM Senior Billy Woods was one of the upperclassmen showing the younger students how the machine shop works.

“We can show them all our machines in operation; our lathes, our milling machines, our CNCs, our laser. We have pretty much everything a machine shop would have,” Woods said. “You will learn more precision in this course than anything else.”

Woods said he enjoyed the course because of the state-of-the-art machines he used.

“It’s the best program in the state,” he said. “You can’t get that experience without being in that position.” It’s the best program in the school.

Terry Whitlatch, machine tool technology instructor, said the machine shop program is popular at the school.

“They love it. Once they walk through that door, you can’t get rid of them,” Whitlatch said. “They want to come here for lunch. They want to come here during free periods. They ask their teachers, if they have finished their work, can they come to the store.

Whitlatch said the program emphasizes safety and also requires learning and using good math skills.

“I tell them you get out of it what you put in,” he said, noting that some graduates now have professional jobs in a machine shop.

CTE program director Bob Wilson said welding and nursing are two of the most sought-after programs.

“I think it’s very important for kids at this age to see what we have to offer at the high school level,” Wilson said. “They have the opportunity to do hands-on learning, which is fantastic. They meet kids from other schools, which is also great. And it gives them the opportunity to try different things over the years.

He noted that students are admitted to programs on a first-come, first-served basis, so it is good for them to register quickly when the time comes.

After graduation, Wilson said the school’s job placement rate in CTE fields was 92 percent.

“If kids want to get a job in an industry right out of high school, they’re pretty much able to do that,” he said.

Wilson added that Sherrard Middle School’s robotics and coding program was also participating Monday.

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