Sussex Tech High School in Georgetown is giving students an additional opportunity to gain on-the-job experience.
The Career Capstone has been piloted for the past few years. Now it’s being expanded.
“There’s a great deal of student interest and community interest in us expanding this program - so that’s what we plan to do,” said Superintendent Stephen Guthrie.
He says starting with this fall’s freshman class, all seniors will have the chance to work part-time in a job in their technical area for at least half of their senior year.
“In other words, in cooperation with businesses in the area, we will actually place students in jobs," said Guthrie. "So for a number of benefits for the students: one, they can certainly see what the career is like for them as they’ve gone through sort of the classroom version of it, and second is, it helps them get a step up in job-seeking.”
Guthrie notes that Capstone was developed in response to requests from local employers seeking qualified and dependable candidates.
"We were lacking - I think - in some of the opportunities that we were giving students to have this Capstone experience," he said. "And what I heard loudly from a lot of stakeholders, including businesses and Board of Education members and State legislators, that we really needed to step up and have students get this experience.”
Guthrie notes that about 75 seniors piloted the Career Capstone program and about 110 seniors have expressed interest in the program starting this fall.
He says Sussex Tech is currently adjusting schedules and modifying curriculum to ensure students get more time in their chosen technical area.
Sussex Tech students graduate with professional certifications and licenses in one of 17 concentrations, such as automotive technology, carpentry and early child-care and education.
