How Richland schools ‘open a door’ for seniors entering the workforce post-graduation

Since he was a child, Xavier Clinton wanted to be a firefighter.

And thanks to new a budding program at Eau Claire High, Clinton will have a head start.

Clinton, a senior at Eau Claire, is enrolled in Richland 1’s commercial driver’s license program, a license required to operate a firetruck, and expects to get his learners permit when he turns 18, he said during a Wednesday press conference.

As traditional education continues to face disruption from factors like student debt and coronavirus, Richland County schools are leaning into technical education.

Just this week, both Richland 1 and Richland 2 announced the expansion of their focus on career and technical education, sometimes abbreviated CATE or CTE. Richland 1 held a press conference Wednesday announcing it was opening the state’s first certified pre-apprenticeship program. Richland 2, during a Tuesday school board meeting, announced its own partnership with Midlands Technical College for career readiness.

Richland 1’s pre-apprentice program helps students get a head start in transportation, health science, diesel mechanics, business, finance, information technology, construction and more by getting hands-on training and courses based on industry standards, according to a news release.

Richland 2 has expanded its partnership with Midlands Tech to help students learn “quick jobs” while still in high school. Those courses include welding, HVAC repair, small engine repair, veterinary assistant, coding, earning a commercial driver’s license and more.

It’s unclear, however, when exactly students will be able to enroll in the quick jobs program, as Midlands Tech needs to find an instructor for each program and a business willing to partner with the school that will accept the students as apprentices and pay them, said Mary Page Boyce, Richland 2’s director of college and career initiatives.

Both districts have prided themselves on their CATE programs, and during the Richland 2 board meeting, an often-divided board commended the introduction of these new courses.

During the Richland 1 press conference, S.C. Technical College System President Tim Hardee stressed the need for K-12 schools and technical colleges to work together to get students into the trades.

Hardee used an example of a hypothetical fourth grade student in Richland 1 to say these technical and career programs give students options for the future.

“In eight years from now when that student is a high school senior...(this) opens a door for them,” Hardee said.

If a K-12 school district were to set up these programs on its own, the cost could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, Boyce said.

It’s not new for schools to introduce technical education or trades preparation, but it’s been gaining traction in recent years.

“A decade ago, you would have teachers feel that kids weren’t being scheduled into their classes and you were hearing things like ‘it’s hard to get people into CATE.’...We feel we have really reduced that situation. The students can get into the CTE classes of their choice. They’re being helped. They want to” enroll in career and technical education classes, Boyce said.

In 2019, Richland 1’s Eau Claire was the first school in S.C. to open a high school commercial driver’s license program.

“We like being first out of the gate, talking about opportunities for our young people,” Richland 1 Superintendent Craig Witherspoon said during the Wednesday press conference.

Entering the trades right out of high school or attending technical college over a traditional four-year school is often an attractive option to many students from low-income backgrounds who may not want to spend decades paying off student loans. In Richland 1, 76% of students meet some definition of poverty including being on food stamps or Medicaid, being homeless, or being a foster child. In Richland 2 that number is 55%, according to S.C. Department of Education data.

After tuition, and scholarships, fees and other college costs are factored in, families who made between $30,001 and $48,000 per year paid $4,161 per year in net price to attend Midlands Tech in 2018-2019, the most recent year available, per U.S. Department of Education data. At the University of South Carolina, that same income bracket had an average, annual net cost of $16,111, data show.