California schools superintendent Tom Torlakson tours Long Beach City College’s career technical education center
LONG BEACH >> Tom Torlakson, state superintendent of public instruction, visited Long Beach City College Wednesday to spotlight career technical education programs.
LBCC is leading the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Technology Linked Learning Consortium, which was awarded $14.9 million under the Career Pathways Trust, a statewide $250 million program to move students toward college and high-demand fields.
“We fought hard to get $250 million in the state budget to expand these kinds of regional partnerships which help students succeed and get to work faster in areas that they feel confident in and skilled in, but it also helps our economy, so as we go around the state — the first round of $250 million — in that process we have touched the regional economies in almost every part of California,” Torlakson said.
The consortium is a regional collaboration among five community colleges, Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Los Angeles, 14 school districts and six local community development partners, officials said.
The goal is to provide an employment pipeline by linking academics to high-growth employment sectors. Agencies that receive grants connect learning programs with businesses to prepare students for jobs in advanced manufacturing and engineering technology.
Torlakson joined LBCC President Eloy Ortiz Oakley and Chris Steinhauser, superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District. The education leaders visited LBCC faculty and students, as well as classrooms, including a first semester industrial electricity class.
“We need to adjust our programs, not just to create programs that lead to jobs, but to create pathways to skills that lead to jobs, and those skills are very different than they were 10 years ago,” Oakley said.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, spearheaded the Career Pathways Trust last year to establish the competitive grant program in California’s 2013-14 budget.
Colleges throughout the state have committed to working with their neighboring school districts to develop clear career pathways with industry-driven technical learning, from high school to graduation with a bachelor’s degree.
Steinhauser called the partnerships a “win-win” for business and education, saying “the grants that we received are helping our young people to connect a pathway to their area of interest.”
Torlakson said an additional $250 million in funding for the program California schools superintendent Tom Torlakson tours Long Beach City College’s career technical education center: