Career Center to Offer High Tech and Innovative Courses

Lexington-Richland 5's new career and technical education center (CATE), which is scheduled to open in 2012, is expected to offer students a wide range of career possibilities.

Dr. Bob Couch, director of career and technology education, discussed course offerings during the board's Monday night meeting and provided renderings of the new facility.

The proposed curriculum is said to include four schools of study containing 18 different programs that will be high tech and innovative.

The schools of study are: the School of Fine Arts and Humanities, the School of Engineering, Manufacturing, and Industrial Technology, the School of Health Science, Human, and Public Services, and the School of Business Management and Information Systems.

Some of the proposed programs include media technology, aerospace engineering, building construction design and integrated technology, culinary arts, and biomedical sciences and nanotechnology.

The center will offer programs that integrate academic and technical studies and provide hands-on and real-life experiences through internships, project-based activities and partnerships with local, state and national technical colleges and universities, and businesses.

Couch said he has already talked with such companies as Boeing as well as Johnson & Wales University to partner with the district in offering students the opportunity to experience what could be their future career.

The center's goal is to prepare students for the global economy, whether they're preparing for a 2- or 4-year college, or immediately entering the work force.

"We want to turn them into innovators where they will become the problem solvers of the future, which I think we have students that have that capability," Couch said.

Students from grades 9-12 at Irmo, Chapin and Dutch Fork high schools will be able to take advantage of the program.

For students in grades 9 and 10, an introduction to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and Technology Systems will be offered.

The yearlong course will be divided into two sections and offer modules that include such topics as aerospace rocketry, genetics, forensic science and digital manufacturing.

Construction of the career center was approved with the passage of the 2008 bond referendum. The center is being built next to the new high school, which will open as a magnet high school, on the corner of Broad River Road and Mt. Vernon Church Road.

The district's CATE advisory council recently proposed naming the new facility the Center for Advanced Technical Studies, which the board of trustees received for review. The council proposes the center's mascot be a bobcat. The center will follow an A/B schedule and up to 500 students can be served each day. Students participating in the programs will have an opportunity to earn dual credit.

For more information about the center and technical education center, visit District 5's web site.