elcome to the the Career and Technical Education Page in the Dubuque Community Schools Web site. In Dubuque Community Schools, Career and Technical education takes many and varied forms, from curriculum planning to activities that extend opportunities for our students beyond the classroom experience. Today Career and Technical education includes highly technical training to prepare students for the evolving information industry, for example.

Why Career and Technical Education is So Important

In many individual cases, a four-year liberal arts education may not be the best fit for a particular student at this stage of his or her life. This is why the Dubuque Community School District is collaborating with regional and state education agencies as well as the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, to continually explore and cultivate post secondary educational options for our students.

One of the programs we are most enthusiastic about is School-to-Work. Below is a cursory outline of School-to-Work as we apply it in our District.

School/Business Partnerships

Another form of Career and Technical development is our School/Business Partner program that is district-wide, school-by-school. School business partnerships are crucial in involving local business and industry with their community schools. This contact between employees or owners of these businesses and our students and faculty is a form of relationship building in our community. This kind of support and collaboration form invaluable relationships that will continually influence our educational content, making our learning centers even more responsive to the needs of business. At the very least, the exposure students have (even at very young ages) to what people in our community do to make a living and make things work, is priceless beyond calculation.

Career and Technical Education- Where Our Future Starts

Career and Technical education, in the Dubuque Community School District, is like a driver's education program, however we are putting students behind the wheel of global information, technology, and sophisticated skills... heading down a highway to the high skill, high pay careers of today and tomorrow. In our universe, Business Education- has no boundaries. We are in collaboration with business and area employers, in particular, making our programs fit their current needs and their anticipated needs.

Of all college majors, business administration is the most popular. The Dubuque Community Schools provide students, of all levels and abilities, the opportunity to develop the basic skills and the knowledge in business. Here are the areas we currently cover:

• Keyboarding
• Word Processing/Microsoft Word
  
• Excel
• Computer Applications
• Note Taking
• Principles of Management
• Business Startup
• Desktop Publishing
• Personal Finance
• Money Management
  
• Accounting I
• Accounting II
• Marketing Ed
• Business Law
  
• Business Technology
  

Family, Health, & Consumer Science- Just for You

Food and Nutrition

• Foods I
• Foods II
• International Foods.

Living well and long... discovering career goals... balancing work, budgets, housing, family life, education, emotional well-being, savvy E-consumerism

• Parenting
• Life Management
• Personal and Family Relationships

Careers in Interior Design, Clothing...

• Interior Design I
• Interior Design II
• Clothing and Design
  

Over 100 careers and growing! Health services is one of the fasted growing career areas.

• Nutrition
• Personal and Family Relations
• Health Careers I
• Health Careers II.
  

Industrial Technology Education- It's a Digital World

Technology has reinvented manufacturing, and along with it, reinvented the worker. Employers are paying top dollar to people who have a solid knowledge of math and science, strong communication skills, problem-solving skills, teaming skills, and technology skills. And the place to start is in the Dubuque Community Schools Industrial Technology Education Department.

• CNC
• "just-in-time" manufacturing and inventory control
• universal systems theory
• cybernetics
• robotics
• electro-lasers
• CAD (computer aided drafting)
• telecommunications
• instrumentation and process control
• fluid power
• CAM (computer aided machining or manufacturing)
• pneumatics
• rapid-prototyping
• TQM (total quality management)
• cleanrooms
• digital systems
• CIM (computer integrated manufacturing)
  

Choose from three technical areas:

• Communication and Design Technology- Pre-engineering, CAD drafting, and video production
• Power Technology- Principles of Technology (Applied Physics), Electricity, Electronics, and Automotive Diagnostics and Design
• Manufacturing Technology- Construction, Manufacturing Processes, Plastics, CNC Machines, Cabinetry, Robotics, Metals, and Welding
  

School-to-Work

13 Necessary Skills for All Learners
Iowa Association of Business and Industry

• Communicate and understand ideas and information
• Collect, analyze, and organize information
• Identify and solve problems
• Understand and work with complex systems
• Apply mathematical reasoning to work-related problems
• Use technology
• Initiate and complete entire activity
• Act professionally
• Interact with others
• Learn and teach on an ongoing basis
• Take responsibility for career and life choices
• Read and understand work-related materials
• Participate in teamwork

School-to-Work works everyday for every student in the Dubuque schools-

• Counseling activities
• CHOICES
• Career Pathways
• Building Business Partners
• Speakers
• Field Trip
• Job Shadows
• Work Experiences
• Student Career and Technical Groups- DECA, Business Professionals
• Work Internships
• Seminar Advisor Groups
• The Play Real Game
• The Make It Real Game
• The Be Real Gam
• Real Times, Real Life
• Career exploration classes
• Engaged Learning
• Equity Policies and Practices
• Career and Technical Education
• Cooperative Learning
• Project Based Learning
• Articulation Agreements with College
• School-to-Career Network Advisory Council
• School-to-Work Building Liaisons
• Computer and Technology Skills
• The House Project
• B.E.A.C.O.N.
• School-based Student Enterprises
• Mentoring

Career and Technical Education- Where Our Future Starts

Click on the logo above to download a printable version of this logo to your hard drive or appropriate folder. It can then be imported into any Microsoft application such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

Your District Administrartive Contact for Career and Technical Education is Brian Howes, Instructional Coordinator for Career and Technical Education.

Plugging the Brain Drain

The Dubuque Labor Management Council with the help of Loras College has produced an interesting new video aimed at high school and college-age students in our area.According to the Director of the DLMC, Chuck Isenhart, "Communities like ours have been experiencing a 'brain drain' largely due to students' inaccurate perceptions that in order to pursue their careers, they had to move away from their home town. Further, local companies are spending enormous sums of money to attract young people to our community when it would be less costly to try to keep the students we already have," explains Chuck. "A special movie is available right now on our website for viewing," adds Gary Olsen, Webmaster for the district.It really tells this important story. It also will be broadcast on Mediacom Cable Local Access.