CTE Spotlight, January 2021

Volume III | January 2021

Please forward this newsletter to your teachers and colleagues.

Updates

VCOE Career Education

CA Department of Education

Please join us Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 9 am for our HQ CTE session: Developing a District Vision of CTE. Laurie Looker of CVUSD and Monica Phillippe of OUHSD will be presenting. Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/8828702460

Moorpark College Career Education Day for High School Students is going virtual this year and is able to accommodate more students. Mark your calendars for March 4.

Save the date! The annual CEC Counselor Breakfast is set for Friday, March 5.

CTE Completer Data Collection is due March 5. Districts offering CTE coded courses are required to report data using CALPADS.

CTEIG Updates: For districts who participated in VCOE CTEIG consortium grant applications, please be sure to provide financial data and complete the survey on how funds were spent, no later than January 20.

The CTEIG Financial Expenditure Report is due to the state for all LEAs directly receiving CTEIG funds on January 31, 2021.

Program Spotlight: Santa Susana High School - Arts, Media, Entertainment

Santa Susana High School (SSHS) has long been established as a school of excellence with a unique focus on Arts, Media, and Entertainment (AME). The Simi Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees, district office administration, and the SSHS administration and teachers have all worked together over many years to put the pieces in place for their AME program to thrive. From annual musicals to AP photography projects to animation, the work being done across thirteen AME pathways is remarkable.

Irene Silbert has been a teacher-leader at SSHS since the 1990s and continues to be a force in guiding students to do professional level work in AME. An Emmy-winning industry professional, Irene is just one of the many talented and passionate educators on staff that makes SSHS a school of distinguished honor.

A sign of the excellence in AME can be seen in their leadership status as a grant funded AME High Quality Demonstration Site. SSHS has held this grant for approximately the last eight years and is one of ten high schools in California with this designation. An annual event is designed for educators to connect with each other around delivering best educational practices. AME Demo Day will be held virtually on February 18, 2021 from 3:30-5:30. More event information is forthcoming; Irene Silbert at is the point of contact for this event at irene.silbert@simivalleyusd.org.

Industry Spotlight: ICT - Cybersecurity

Professor Edmond Garcia, Moorpark College

The field of cybersecurity represents a high demand, high wage career pathway. The demand for skilled and certified cybersecurity professionals is currently strong and as more businesses shift to cloud based services the need for more cybersecurity professionals will continue to grow. Entry level jobs pay well and offer opportunities for rapid career advancement with potential to earn a six-figure salary.

Moorpark College offers an Associate of Science Degree (A.S.) program in Cybersecurity with certificates of achievement in Cybersecurity Penetration Tester, Cybersecurity Administration, and Cyber Investigations and Computer Forensics. Moorpark College professor Edmond Garcia is an ambassador for the cybersecurity program and proudly speaks of the success of his students and the continuous growth and expansion of the Computer Network Systems Engineering Program at Moorpark College.

There are no prerequisites or waitlists associated with getting started in the program and students can complete their A.S. degree with certifications in approximately two years. Oxnard College has also started a Cybersecurity program as well with the first classes being taught in the spring of 2021.

Industry Fact: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts cybersecurity jobs will grow 31% through 2029, over seven times faster than the national average job growth of 4%.

STEM Pipeline

Anne Campbell recently came on board at VCOE as a leader in Robotics and STEM support. Anne will be a resource and point of contact for K-12 sites for Robotics and Career Education STEM activities. Please feel free to contact her at acampbell@vcoe.org.

Title I elementary sites are needed for an elementary robotics pilot project. We are looking for 2-3 elementary sites without current robotics programs, which are geographically situated relatively near the Seabee Museum. The pilot is designed to engage parents and families and provides robotics kits for the pilot classrooms. Interested teachers or administrators should contact Anne Campbell.

The annual Hackathon by the Sea will be taking place in a virtual format on February 26 and 27, 2021. The event will be fun, informative, interactive, and rewarding. Please encourage all interested students to sign up; the flier and sign up link soon will be active on our Hackathon webpage.

Seaglide is an autonomous underwater glider project and competition for high school students. A planning team is organizing a remote event for fall 2021 in lieu of the traditional spring event. A summer teacher training is being planned. Contact Anne Campbell if you are interested in being involved in planning or learning more.