During 2011-2012, TRADART is planning to hold strategic planning sessions between business/industry, nonprofits and educational leaders to develop a long-range (3-4 year) plan to create a more comprehensive and coordinated approach in career and technical education (CTE) programs in our local schools. We also wish to create a strong and reliable system that more effectively engages the local business and nonprofit communities into meaningful, sustainable and strategically designed activities that support those programs and the students served by them.

This project, funded through a Santa Barbara Foundation grant and in a collaborative effort with the Santa Barbara County Education Office administered nonprofit, Partners In Education, will greatly help address the ability of educational institutions to provide students with business and industry supported career technical programs that will provide students with the hands-on experiences that will make their education "real". By getting a taste of the real world, students often begin to make a link between what they're learning today and what they could be earning tomorrow. For a teenager who might otherwise be bored and jaded and ready to drop out of school, research indicates, this connection can be a powerful motivator to stay in school. Additionally, our local and State economy needs skilled workers, the vast majority of which require skills training beyond high school, but not necessarily a college degree. The career technical education programs we envision developing would include articulation of programs between the local elementary, junior high, high school and the community college/university, which would ensure that students would be able to gain the skills necessary for initial employment as well as for employment-skills upgrading and life-long learning opportunities. 

Please check back to this webpage for progress reports about the strategic planning we have undertaken for career technical education.