Career Center Objectives

• To ensure that all students regardless of gender, race, religion, disabilities, sexual orientation, language, culture, or economic status are given equal opportunity in all career and technical programs.
  
  
• To provide an environment for all staff members and employees that promotes development of effective programs.
  
  
• Maintain open communication with sending and member high schools to enhance the integration of academic and technical curriculum.
  
  
• Cooperate in developing and implementing curriculum changes that reflect current industry standards.
  
  
• To recruit and sustain a responsible, committed, and cooperative teaching staff who are interested in providing quality education to each one of their students and who will continue to improve themselves professionally.
  
  
• To provide each student with an opportunity to develop his/her full potential by providing training that fosters the acquisition of personal, social, and ethical qualities, and that will prepare the student to cope with decision-making, problem-solving, and communication in today's complex workplace.
  
  
• To provide students with a positive atmosphere for learning, including a physical environment that is maintained with appropriate equipment and materials.
  
  
• To maintain ongoing guidance services to provide for personal, career, substance abuse, adjustment, and counseling, as well as other services necessary to the individual's immediate needs and developmental growth.
  
  
• To provide a system of technical and academic assessment, monitoring, and evaluation of student potential, ability, and performance.
  
  
• To implement the Individual Education Plan (IEP) process, as outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and relevant Vermont statutes.
  
  
• To encourage incoming students to explore various occupational areas and pursue a career based on the individual's aptitude, potential interests, and awareness of the requirements of that occupation.
  
  
• To adopt and import workplace competencies and foundational skills utilized by effective and competent workers in the demanding age of high performance workplaces. (See Workplace Know How.)
  
  
• To provide academic remediation and instruction for basic skills in reading, writing, calculating, and communicating when appropriate.
  
  
• To provide instruction and supervised work-based learning to enable students to develop in their chosen occupational fields.
  
  
• To foster a sound work ethic by requiring students to be punctual, to attend school regularly, and to assume individual responsibility for gaining skill and proficiency in their trade.
  
  
• To encourage participation in extra-curricular activities, through which students have the opportunity to develop a sense of self-worth, leadership potential, teamwork, and the exercise of personal talents and interests.
  
  
• To ensure that the opportunities for and the advantages of career and technical education are presented to prospective students and their parents, so that informed decisions can be made when choosing a technical path and making career decisions.
  
  
• To elicit community support, by involving local citizens on program advisory boards; encouraging use of the school facility; coordinating students and programs to participate in, and complete community service projects.

MISSION STATEMENT AND GOALS 2005-2006

One Mission ~ Learner Success

A clear Vision of effective communication and technology supporting learners at every opportunity.

The Windham Regional Career Center mission is to provide all learners with skills and competencies leading to post-secondary success. The Career Center supports a system of communication promoting an organizational climate that maximizes learning opportunities. The Career Center utilizes advanced technology to deliver valid curriculum aligned with recognized educational and industry standards and competencies to all learners in Windham County and the surrounding region.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

• Safe and Healthy Schools
  • Career Center staff are committed to demonstrating the following in support of our learning community in the midst of significant challenge and change:
    
  • Care and supportive action
    
  • Humor and laughter
    
  • Accessible to students
    
  • Positive attitude towards others on our campus and with each other

   

• The Career Center will initiate, participate and engage in collaborative planning with all sending school districts to enhance student success.
  

Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment

• The Career Center aligns curriculum with the Vermont and Windham Southeast Supervisory Union Frameworks.
  
  
• The Career Center supports the concept of "Time & Learning" as described in Career and Technical Education regulations and will engage work-based and project-based learning to provide for occupational competency.
  
  
• Students will be provided a variety of learning opportunities to achieve or exceed state and local standards and competencies.
  
  
• 1. Cooperative education, adult education programs, project-based learning.
  
  
• 2. Utilize appropriate assessment tools to measure written, verbal progress.
  
  
• 3. Develop portfolios for assessing student work as appropriate.
  
  
• Career Center instructors will continue to identify and develop assessments designed to measure "embedded academic" gains.
  
  
• The Career Center will review all relevant state and district student performance measures, compare regional performance measures, analyze gaps between state levels and regional performance, and establish performance goals and strategies.
  
  
• The Career Center will coordinate with sending elementary, middle and high schools through the Regional Career Development Council (RCDC) to ensure that students receive comprehensive career development and are able to make informed decisions regarding career and technical education programs.
  
  
• Introductory "Pre-Tech" programs will be approved by the Vermont Board of Education for delivery at the Career Center and sending high schools as appropriate.
  
  
• Each existing and newly approved Career Center program will be linked to post-secondary education, apprenticeship and training programs to effect seamless connections for area youth and adults.
  
  
• Career Center programs will align with career clusters and collaborative planning will take place around core curriculum, budgeting, project-based learning and academic competencies.
  
  
• Industry standards will be identified and learners will be supported in the achievement of recognized credentials in all Career Center program offerings.
  

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION

• The Career Center will demonstrate effective internal and external communication to all stakeholders in support of post-secondary success as demonstrated by:
  
  
  • Active and regular involvement with program advisory committee members
    
  • Publication of 2 Career Center student sponsored newsletters
    
  • Conduct bi-monthly staff meetings
    
  • Identify PR responsibilities among staff
    
  • Communicate with sending schools
    
  • More frequent communications with parents
    
    
• A high level of communication between the Career Center guidance coordinator and all of the guidance personnel in the sending schools will continue.
  
  
• The Career Center will partner with the Workforce Investment Board, the Adult Education Council, Regional Advisory Board, postsecondary institutions and others to respond to regional workforce development needs.
  
  
• National, state and regional workforce development needs will be used in planning new programs and updating existing programs.
  
  
• Program advisory committees will annually review programs and recommend budgets in support of program improvement.

LEADERSHIP

• Career Center staff's Professional Development Needs will be assessed, prioritized and goals will be integrated via a Performance Management process and document.
  
  
• Professional development activities related to district goals, the goals and mission of the Career Center and the individual development plans of staff will be supported.
  
  
• The Regional Advisory Board is responsible for overseeing Career Center operations and the development of new and existing programs.
  
  
• The Career Center will expand current capacity to provide adult technical education and training.
  
  
• Communication tools will be provided to support and promote the Career Center.
  

TECHNOLOGY

• The Career Center will develop and maintain a technical infrastructure that allows students to gain competency necessary for postsecondary success.
  
  
• Career Center staff will receive the training necessary to provide instruction that meets or exceeds industry standards in all areas of technology.
  
  
• The Career Center will identify and incorporate new technologies in operations and instruction as is appropriate to its mission and philosophy.
  
  
• Regional access to technical education will be increased.
  
  
• Best practices in Instructional Technologies will be modeled.

Non Discrimination

It is the intent in the Windham Regional Career Center that its Boards and employees will not discriminate against any intended beneficiaries of Statutory protection (including but not limited to students, employees, parents, guardians, other members of the community or applicants for employment or admission, and union programs or profession organizations holding collective bargaining or professional agreements with the school district) on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, handicap, or sexual orientation in admission and access to, or treatment or employment in any Career Center programs, activities, policies, procedures, and practices, as and to the extent provided by law.

Any person having inquiries concerning the Windham Regional Career Center's compliance with the regulations implementing Title VI, Title IX, the Americans with disabilities Act, or Act 504 is directed to call Ingrid Chrisco, Equity Coordinator, Brattleboro Area Middle School, 109 Sunny Acres, Brattleboro, VT 05301, Telephone 802-257-3029.

WORKPLACE KNOW-HOW

The know-how identified by SCANS (Secretaries Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1992) is made up of five competencies and a three-part foundation of skills and personal qualities that are needed for successful job performance. These are:

WORKPLACE COMPETENCIES

Effective workers can productively use:

• Resources - They know how to allocate time, money, materials, space, and staff.
  
  
• Interpersonal Skills - They learn how to work on teams, teaching others, serve customers, lead, negotiate and work well with people from culturally diverse backgrounds.
  
  
• Information - They can acquire and evaluate data, organize and maintain files, interpret and communicate, and use computers to process information.
  
  
• Systems - They understand social, organizational, and technological systems; they can monitor and correct performance; and they can design or improve systems.
  
  
• Technology - They can select equipment and tools, apply technology to specific tasks, and maintain and trouble shoot equipment.
  
  

FOUNDATION SKILLS

Competent workers in the high-performance workplace need:

• Basic Skills - reading, writing, arithmetic and mathematics, speaking, and listening.
  
  
• Thinking Skills - The ability to learn, to reason, to think creatively, to make decisions, and to solve problems.
  
  
• Personal Qualities - individual responsibility, self-esteem and self-management, sociability, and integrity.