The Beaver County Career and Technology Center (BCCTC) is an important part of the district’s career pipeline, serving as an entryway into the trades for a number of students within the district.
The school offers a total of 18 different programs for junior and senior students across the county to participate in. These programs range from fields like Graphic Arts and Printing to a Veterinary Assistant program to Automotive Technology. The BCCTC separates these programs into seven categories: Advanced Manufacturing, Art, Design & IT, Construction and Building Trades, Healthcare Medical, Service, Transportation and Distribution and Adult Education Programs.
Students who attend the BCCTC travel to the Monaca campus each morning to take classes. These students miss what the district allocates as first and second block each morning.
Although the district will wrap up the school year in the first week of June, BCCTC students have already felt the payoff of all of the hard work that they have put in all year long. The BCCTC wrapped up their spring semester—and thus their year—in late May, with graduation marking the end of the school year.
“I am sad about graduation for CTC being in less than a week, since this was an amazing experience with new opportunities and new friends.” Harmony Martin (12) said.
The BCCTC held their annual graduation ceremony for their senior students on May 23. During this ceremony, which took place on the BCCTC’s campus, students were called up and handed the certificates that they worked hard to earn over the past two years.
These certificates permit students to work in the fields that they have studied. With these certifications, students can now go out and find jobs and begin their careers.
“I am a little upset that we will be graduating, but I am also excited to start my future in this career,” Trista Somerville (12) said.
In order to graduate from the BCCTC, students must complete a final exam entitled the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute, otherwise called the NOCTIs, that covers all the material that they had learned during the course. This ranges from things like the fundamentals of the course, real-world applications and safety measures that they must take and why they exist. Students must also complete a hands-on project to graduate. Students in the welding program were required to complete a project that incorporated different styles or techniques of welding.
With new experience and certifications, many senior students plan to look for jobs in the fields that they studied, and some even beyond. Somerville plans to go into the workforce for a year before attending Pennsylvania Technical College in Williamsport. After college, she plans to become a certified welding inspector. Isaiah Leasha (12) plans to continue into the workforce for HVAC work after graduating from the BCCTC. Martin, who trained to become a veterinary assistant, plans to attend CCBC to become a veterinary technician.
“The Career and Technology Center led me to finding my career by giving me opportunities to get the certifications I need to work in the field and overall taught me enough to land me a job with an HVAC company,” Leasha said.
The BCCTC also offers programs outside of the typical trades such as welding or HVAC. For example, Martin was enrolled in the veterinary assistant program, where she was taught how to become an OSHA-certified and approved veterinarian, ready to take up job opportunities in the real world.
Among Somerville, Leasha and Martin, many other senior students have now received the credentials they need to establish themselves in the workforce and set themselves up for greatness. The BCCTC permitted students to get the experience and knowledge they needed to do so.
“I’m expecting more opportunities in the field to make the best life possible for myself,” Leasha said.