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CTE opportunities abound at SCUC
A mixture of old school trades and emerging technologies are opening doors for students seeking employment pathways through the SCUC ISD Career and Technical Education (CTE) program. Matthew Smith leads the welding program at Byron P. Steele High School, complete with blue jeans, goatee and a big personality. He is loudly proclaiming the gospel of manual trades to anyone who wants a well-paying job straight out of high school.
“There are 280,000 welding jobs in the United States that will not get filled because we don’t have people to fill them,” Smith said, citing Department of Labor Standards from 2019. “I am grateful and glad to see that we are actually moving back to having trades in schools.”
Smith’s third period class is all business when they enter his classroom. Within ten minutes of the start of the period, they had all donned their safety attire, and had begun welding metal or working the circular saw to cut lumber. Four of the students who enthusiastically go about their work are girls.
“Part of my class philosophy is everybody gets their hands dirty,” he said. “Let’s see if you really want it. If they want to learn and want to get dirty and see what they can do with their hands, and it’s awesome.”
According to Payscale.com, the average hourly wage for welders in the greater San Antonio-area is almost $17 an hour. It is not uncommon for more experienced welders to make up to $100,000 a year.
Those potential financial rewards are still on the horizon for Smith’s students. At the moment, he derives satisfaction from the “A-ha!” moments his students experience once a lesson sinks in. “I get the feeling every time I watch (their) light bulb turn on. This is why.”
Smith concedes he could make more money working his profession in the private sector. An opportunity to teach at a public school was too difficult to pass up. “I was looking for a change,” he said. “And I jumped on it.”
Nine other new CTE teachers have joined Smith at SCUC this year, either with private sector and/or military experience. As a District of Innovation (DOI), the school district is granted the flexibility to find teachers for hard-to-fill positions, particularly in CTE courses where individuals from different career fields provide instruction to students from a recent practitioner perspective. SCUC ISD Trustees approved the DOI plan in 2018, and will consider the action again early next year when a recommendation will be made for its renewal.
Scott Ledbetter, came into his job as a Computer Science teacher at Samuel Clemens High School with zero experience in public education, spending 13 years in the United States Marine Corps and seven more in the United States Army Signal Corps.
“I think we’re at a good start for the program,” said Ledbetter, who came on board in March. “Going back to when I was an instructor in the military, it’s building lesson plans for the period of instruction that we’re doing. Even if they can’t find a job in San Antonio, they could probably stay here and work remotely.”
Many of the students in Ledbetter’s second period class are sophomores and juniors, and haven’t had time to consider career options. However the class is viewed as a springboard to a multitude of possibilities in their career. “Learning to code (writing computer programs)” was the overwhelming response by the twenty students in the classroom.
Ledbetter takes the time to ask the students in his class what their educational endgame is, and encourages them to research the career before committing to it. “I explained to the kids, from life experience, if you want a career path you’re going to hit a crossroad no matter where you’re at,” he said. “If you’re just trying to get it done, you might find yourself doing something that you didn’t actually want to do within the computer science field.”
Starting salaries in the computer science fields depend on the certifications they attain and the path they pursue. “Of the Security Plus, they could make $18 to $26 dollars an hour,” he said, adding, “When you get into the network system administration, you start off somewhere between $25 to $35 an hour.”
Ultimately, Ledbetter sees the computer science portion of the CTE program growing incrementally, perhaps to the point Computer Science draws its own wing for instruction. “What I get from doing what I do is seeing the kids getting their certifications. We taught, we trained good enough to be certified,” he said. “Then we can say that our success rate is 90%, to throw out a random number. That will put us on the map.”
Smith sees his students not just making a healthy salary, but becoming entrepreneurs and business owners. “You’re looking at all types of trade careers out there that have only one way to go and that’s up,” he said. “I have watched my students, literally leave where I’m working and go out in the field and earn more money than I am in teaching, sometimes double what I’m making.”