Hundreds of high schoolers explore job opportunities at CTE conference in Nipomo
Dave Alley
NIPOMO, Calif. (KEYT) – Hundreds of local high school students had the chance to learn about future job opportunities at a career technical education (CTE) conference held Wednesday at Nipomo High School.
About 300 students from Nipomo, Central Coast New Tech and Lopez high schools partipated in the event that was held for the third straight year.
“The students have the opportunity to go in to pick three rooms that have different industry specific, including healthcare, construction, aviation and many others,” said Kristin Anderson, Lucia Mar Unified School District Curriculum Instruction Director. “They also have an opportunity to attend the vendor fair with over 40 different local vendors.”
Several companies, businesses, government agencies, community colleges and other organizations took part in the CTE conference, including Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Edwards Construction, ACI Jet, Caltrans, RRM Design Group, Edwards Construction, San Luis Obispo County Airport, Arroyo Grande Police Department, San Luis Obispo County Fire Department/CAL FIRE, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office and many others.
“I think it’s important for students to get to see what’s in our community,” said Anderson. “Sometimes our students don’t know what the opportunities they have if they don’t have a place to see them all at one spot, so it’s kind of like a one stop shop for everybody to get to see different ideas and maybe they’ll branch out and try something new.”
Students had several opportunities to meet face-to-face with career professionals, at a vendor fair held inside the school’s Olympic Hall.
“I think, for a lot of people, it’s very eye opening,” said student Cy Randall. “I feel like a lot of kids don’t know what they want to do after high school and this is a good opportunity for them to explore different careers and just kind of understand if they want to go into a certain field, what that will mean, what the salary will mean, what the work’s going to mean, stuff like that.”
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