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CTE / ROP Advisory Board Annual Meeting
More than 350 Inland business leaders and educators emerged from their annual advisory meeting on career education with new ideas for delivering cutting-edge job skills to today’s students.
In workshops covering a dozen different fields of business and industry, professionals met with teachers of Career Technical Education and the Regional Occupational Program. The experts provided advice about course content, plus the latest equipment and evolving skill sets that can make students competitive in the job market. The goal is to keep Career Tech/ROP classes fresh and relevant.
"These business advisory committees provide a vital link between the CTE educational institutions and our county’s business community," said Kenneth M. Young, Riverside County Superintendent of Schools. "Our CTE business partners assist in curriculum review, verify labor market demands and make program recommendations based upon industry trends and needs."
Many of the teachers attending the sessions were from the CTE Unit of the Riverside County Office of Education. The CTE Unit provides some 550 ROP classes to 33,000 students across the county. Classes span 50 career areas and provide students with practical experience in more than 2,000 places of employment. Educational partners from community colleges and local districts also attended.
As a successful program of career and vocational education, ROP dates back 40 years in the Inland region. Annual business-industry advisory meetings have been held by the Riverside County Office of Education for more than 20 years, and are a state accountability requirement. CTE programs and curriculum must be validated and approved yearly.
Young, addressing the meeting at the Riverside Convention Center on November 3, told the audience that efforts to mesh industry’s needs with career tech curriculum in schools are more important than ever. Hard times and the rise of the global marketplace have created the most competitive work environment in the Inland Empire since the Great Depression, he said. Many graduates here are putting off college; some drop out of school only to discover they can’t find a job. Still others finish school fired with energy, ambition and fresh ideas. “They come from a world where they are immersed in technology every single day, Young said, “and they know how to use it.” But they also need help finding their way into a workplace that is now worldwide in scope.
The challenge for business, industry and education together, Young said, is to shape all that potential and promise for today’s opportunities. “We have to prepare those students who are coming out of our schools for a whole different world.”
Thanking industry advisers for attending, he said: “Ladies and gentlemen, we need your help. The teachers here need your help. This generation of students needs it more than any in a long time.”
The group also heard uplifting stories from industry professionals who found their calling in CTE/ROP classes.
Maritza Rodriguez told of rising from poverty, finding her academic bearings in ROP classes and going on to win a Ph.D. and make her career in education.
Steve Espinosa captivated listeners with his high-energy tale of entrepreneurial success. As a high school student in Murrieta, he said, he had a gift for computers and found his inspiration in a CTE/ROP multimedia course. By the time he was 21, he had created an Internet-based business, won the backing of Silicon Valley investors, turned the business into a hot property, and sold out for $5 million. He thanked the CTE/ROP teachers in the room. “You guys all taught me to hustle,” he said.
For information contact:
Rick Peoples,
Public Information Officer
Telephone: (951) 826-6642
Fax: (951) 826-6199
rpeoples@rcoe.us |
