Ohio County Middle School Students Getting Intro To CTE | News, Sports, Jobs

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Tridelphia Middle School students on Tuesday participate in a Career and Technical Education (CTE) career fair at the school.

WHEELING — February is Career Tech Education Month, and Wheeling Park High School wants the community — and especially middle school students — to know what CTE education is about at the school.

Twenty-eight students already participating in CTE classes at WPHS came to Triadelphia Middle School Tuesday to tell younger students about their CTE experiences, and explain what offerings there are at WPHS.

“We take our company leaders from our simulated workplaces, and they visit the middle schools to talk about the programs we have so that they have some knowledge and experience so when they come to Wheeling Park they know what they want to take,” said WPHS Assistant Principal Stephanie Bugaj, also director of the school’s CTE program.

WPHS has 15 simulated workplace companies made up of 20 programs of study at the school. About 60% of WPHS participate in at least one CTE class, according to Bugaj.

“They don’t all necessarily finish the program, but many of them do,” Bugaj said.

Students can learn while participating in such areas as agriculture, food and natural resources; architecture and construction; arts, A/V technology and communications; business management and administration; finance; health science; hospitality and tourism; science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); information technology; manufacturing; marketing; and transportation, distribution and logistics.

No one area seems to dominate the students’ interest, according to Bugaj.

“We offer so many things for so many people,” she said. “It’s a wide range from the high wall shops — which are the higher level of safety, such as the welding and machine tooling — to the soft skills, like personal wellness and fitness training and broadcasting.”

Career programs like auto shop and welding prepare students to get jobs right out of high school, Bugaj explained. Others, such as broadcasting, marketing and robotics prepare them for college and post-secondary education.

Bugaj said the middle school students appeared interested in learning about the opportunities that will be available to them at the high school.

“I’m sure we will see a lot of them in our programs when they get to the high school,” she said.

A CTE career fair is slated for today at Bridge Street Middle School, and next week at Wheeling Middle School on Monday and Warwood School on Wednesday.

Eighth graders will be going to visit WPHS for its CTE Open House on Feb. 24.

In addition, a ribbon cutting soon will be scheduled for the new school store at WPHS, which is going to be operated by CTE students.