Charlottesville City Schools features several avenues for promoting awareness of and pathways to future careers:

• Career exploration activities from kindergarten through high school
• Career and Technical Education classes offered at Buford and CHS (see below)
• Courses for high schoolers and adults at Charlottesville Area Technical Education Center (CATEC). See videos showcasing each of the programs at CATEC here.
• For life skills and transition-planning for students with special needs, click here.

Career and Technical Education at Buford and CHS
The Career and Technical Education (CTE) department provides sequences of career-related courses designed to help students develop skills needed for employment, advanced technical training programs, and continuing education on the college and university level. Courses help students develop twenty-first century job skills, such as proficiency in computer technology, information acquisition and processing, problem solving, teamwork, and effective communication skills. Some lead to college credit or nationally recognized certificates and credentials!

Career and Technical Education courses are designed to enhance and support the academic curriculum – reinforcing the Standards of Learning established for English, mathematics, science, history and social science.

CHS and CATEC do not charge any fees for course enrollment.

About the Program: Credentials and Pathways
Offerings are widespread, including:

• commercial photography
• computer science
• culinary arts
• economics and personal finance (required for all students and part of the CHS/CFA Institute Finance Academy)
• engineering
• marketing/entrepreneurship from finance to urban farming
• see full list in “Career and Technical Education” in Program of Studies.

The CTE class sequences are designed to give college credits or an industry-recognized career-readiness certificate or credential. They also prepare students to continue their learning in college or additional career training. For instance, the engineering and computer science classes in CTE can prepare students to continue their engineering studies in CHS’s Sigma program and beyond — or they can enroll at CATEC to earn valuable industry certifications such as CISCO CCENT or CompTIA A+.

To learn more about the career-readiness certifications or college credits associated with CTE classes at CHS or CATEC, contact your school counselor.

Course Offerings in Grades 7-12:

• See “Career and Technical Education” in Program of Studies

More Information:
Megan Fitzgerald, 434-245-2400
fitzgem1@charlottesvilleschools.org