The South Central Calhoun (SCC) Community School District is implementing a new curriculum that will award students a pre-apprenticeship certificate upon completion to prepare them to enter the trade field. This is the first year of the school’s Skilled Trades Readiness course, offered each semester, to help students obtain the math, reading, and writing skills required for skilled careers. Instructor Alissa Promes says after contacting a trades union representative from Des Moines, a plan was established to bring a new pathway to SCC students who want a more hands-on learning experience.
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Promes provides English instruction and partners up with another instructor, Mandy Maile, who implements the math portion of the course to obtain both math and English credits. Maile says the class has many topics and projects, from learning the history of ironworking and masonry to completing a project inspired by the Disney movie “UP.”
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The course is offered every day to participating students for two class periods to give them time to complete the projects without needing to meet a 45-minute time crunch of a typical class period. Maile says the participation and eagerness of the students to come to class and gain these skills help to make this a positive and successful experience.
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Students so far have been able to take field trips to Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge to learn about courses to take to get them ready for a specific career, EVAPCO in Lake View to get a visual and hands-on experience of a day in the life of one of the trades as well as having speakers discuss the path they took to get into that career. This current semester has 12 students participating, and both Maile and Promes say that many students want to enroll in the spring semester. Maile and Promes thank the SCC School board and administration for supporting this new endeavor and giving SCC students a new look at the career industry beyond high school.