Central Alberta Collegiate Institute celebrated 31 high school students for completing the dual credit post-secondary course.
"Olds College of Agriculture & Technology’s Werklund School of Agriculture was filled with proud families and smiling graduates on Friday, June 13," shared Chinook's Edge.
The graduates are high school students who have completed post-secondary training, earning both college and high school credits. The Central Alberta Collegiate Institute (CACI) offered pre-employment programs in welding and heavy equipment technician (HET).
"Of the 31 high school students who completed the programs this year, 30 are currently eligible to write the Apprenticeship and Industry Training Exam. Students who pass the exam with 70 per cent or higher will be credited with a year of post-secondary training. Provincially, welding is a three-year program and heavy equipment technician is a four-year program."
This is the fourth group of high school students to complete pre-employment training at Olds College.
“Having a year of post-secondary training complete before students graduate from high school gives them an advantage,” says Brianne Fletcher, Career Connections Coordinator, Chinook’s Edge School Division. “Not only are they well ahead of the industry average for entry age, but they are more confident in their training, and the training gives them a higher success level in their academic studies, too.”
Twenty students from Chinook's Edge, four from Wolf Creek Public Schools, five from Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools, and two from Red Deer Public Schools make up the 31 students enrolled in Olds College's pre-employment programs.
“I felt a bit nervous about entering the program,” says Wyatt Ayers, an HET student from Hugh Sutherland School in Carstairs, “but once I got to know everyone and started learning about all the different units, I felt fine.”
Kayly Watt, an HET student from Cremona School, says she is thankful for her instructor. She says her aha moment was when she realized that physics and math are useful after high school.
Four partnering school divisions (Red Deer Public Schools, Red Deer Catholic Regional School Division, Wolf Creek Public Schools, and Chinook's Edge School Division), two post-secondary institutions (Olds College of Agriculture & Technology and Red Deer Polytechnic), and CAREERS, a non-profit organization that works with schools to link young people with employers by offering worthwhile paid internship opportunities, have successfully partnered to form CACI.
Chinook's Edge School Division has 12 schools in neighbouring communities, including Olds, Mountain View County, Didsbury and Carstairs. Chinook's Edge has a total of 11,000 students across 40 Central Alberta schools.
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