Durham Public Schools is thinking about the skills its students will need for future careers. And soon, new classes and projects within its Career-Technical Education program will begin teaching them.
The program’s director Rick Sheldahl visited American Underground in late January to share the process he’s going through to develop curriculum to better train students in its eight programs: Agriculture, Business, Finance and IT, Career Development, Family and Consumer Sciences, Health Science, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Technology Engineering and Design and Trade and Industrial.
The program is already set up to address 14 of the state’s 16 industry clusters, but Sheldahl admits that more work needs to be done to ensure students are learning the most relevant skills. Already, he’s planning a partnership with the national computer science education group, Code.org.
Sheldahl ended his talk by soliciting feedback from entrepreneurs in the room. One of his missions is to continue to link Durham students with industry. Watch/listen to his talk to learn more about DPS’s efforts, and maybe find a way for your company to get involved:
