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Program Description
Cooperative Education is an extension of the academic and applied technical training opportunities
offered to students at our Technical Center. In existence for over 40 years, these services combine
practical applications in the classroom with skills useful in the workplace and for future employment.
In our Cooperative Education Program, three Career Development Coordinators place eligible students
with entry-level skills in unpaid short-term internships and/or paid positions related to their career area of
training with area employers. By participating in cooperative education experiences, students put their
education to work for them. While they learn, students have the opportunity to gain career experience,
develop self-confidence, acquire necessary workplace readiness skills, and in some cases, earn a wage.
Career Development Coordination
Our Career Development Coordinators work with technical instructors, students, their parents, and the
business community to ensure student success and enhance career opportunities beyond our technical
programs and classrooms. They address students' career development needs and design approaches
to help students chart a career course for their lives and careers beyond high school. Our Career
Development Coordinators may work from our cooperative education center, or they make take their
program into classrooms for sessions with entire classes, honoring the technical program's schedule and
student needs. Serving as advocates for the appropriate level of career development for students, they
engage in initiatives designed to support student career development and growth within the realm of the
goals of their technical programs. These initiatives are accomplished with students individually as well as
in small-group and whole-class settings, and consist of both proactive and responsive services.
Career Work Experiences
Career Development Coordinators serve several levels of responsibility, working as a career resource
to individual students, teachers, parents, guardians, the school as a whole, and business community
members. They counsel individual students with regard to academic and career development and design
appropriate career development activities to enhance the goals of their technical programs. They are
licensed professionals who also take care to plan safe and appropriate placements for eligible students.
By regularly collaborating with teachers, students, parents, and employers about any number of issues
that affect student learning and career development, they implement a variety of career work experiences
for students based on their academic and career development needs within the larger context of our
communities and the state of the economy.
Internship Training and Co-operative Technical Education
The Center For Technology, Essex offers those students who have successfully completed one year of
their technical program and are highly motivated, focused and highly skilled, a second year option of
student internships in certain career areas. This workplace competency delivered curriculum combines
both non-paid and paid training, vital for students to achieve advanced job placement or acceptance in
post-secondary training programs and or institutions in their selected career areas.
Transportation
The Center for Technology, Essex owns two mini-vans, one station wagon, and nine school
buses to transport students to their career work experience (CWE) job sites, field trips, local and
state wide Skills USA competitions, community services, and FFA competitions and activities.
This fleet also allows great flexibility for Career Development Coordinators in scheduling
visits and CWE's to the companies and organizations that partner with our technical programs
in hosting our students for work-based learning experiences. This fleet is used on a daily basis
and managed by five bus drivers. CTE employs a full-time Transportation Coordinator who
schedules travel agendas and oversees the servicing of these vehicles so that they are in safe
operating condition.
Industry Partners
We collaborate with over 500 community employers and organizations, developing career development
approaches and opportunities appropriate and necessary for our students' aspiring technical educations
and career growth experiences.
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