Students interested in automotive technology, woodworking and welding at Cerritos College this year will be able to take advantage of a grant dedicated to producing more vocational teachers in those fields.
Teacher Training Academy program will do this by recruiting high school students, current Cerritos College students and career professionals as vocational teachers.
“What this project is trying to do is produce more teachers for those classes, to produce shop teachers, to interest young people in high school into thinking about becoming a teacher, and become an automotive or a welding teacher or a woodworking teacher” California Industrial and Technology Education Consortium Facilitator Richard Nicholson said.
The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office renewed the Career Technical Education Pipeline Grant for Cerritos College after awarding the grant to Cerritos last year.
It was written last year, and is being run by the Teacher TRAC program.
Teacher TRAC is a program that offers services and programs to students interested in teaching careers.
Teacher TRAC’s flagship program partners with California State University Long Beach.
A student in the integrated program can earn his or her Bachelor’s degree and multiple subject credential, and complete student teaching.
The CTE is targeted towards high school and current Cerritos College students, in addition to industry professionals, such as auto mechanics from dealerships or professionals working in carpentry and woodworking.
According to Carina Huynh, the program’s project manager, the CTE is “building more awareness among the community and campus about this program to inform students or the community about certain teacher track programs.
That’s eventually to become a vocational instructor in the three strong programs we have here at Cerritos: welding, woodworking, and also automotive technology. There’s a shortage in the market for these types of instructors, especially vocational instructors.”
A student can become a CTE instructor in about two years, depending on experience.
For a student wanting to teach at the high school level, he or she will need to earn a Bachelor’s degree and a teaching credential.
In order to teach at the junior college level, a student will need either six years work experience and an Associate’s degree or 2 years work experience and a Bachelor’s degree.
The CTE program also has a counselor, Phil Salazar, dedicated to the program.
There is also the possibly of funding for student teaching internships and observations.
“We have already built relationships to set up internships and observations with La Mirada, ABC School District and Norwalk. It’s a way for students to go into the classroom and observe the instructor to see if this is something they would like to do to become vocational instructors in theses areas. And the internship this year is going to be a paid type of internship,” said Carina Huyunh, CTE Pathways Grant Project Manager.
And the CTE program also has funds available to take students to professional conferences or to bring professionals to Cerritos College and hold special workshops.
Interested students can attend an open house coming up on September 16 between 3:30 and 5:30 in the student center.
“School is a disconnect for most people. That’s why we’ve got almost 25 percent dropout. There’s someway we gotta hook people up. They don’t all have to go to college, but we got a way with those people with those interests to go to college, go to Cerritos, learn more and maybe come out and become a teacher. This isn’t a hard sell,” Richard Nicholson said.
