In the year before Hamilton County Schools revamped its career and technical education programs in 2018, 66 students earned at least one industry certification. This past school year, it was 1,914.
That number has increased every year since the Future Ready programs launched.
For Ahsan Haroon, the credentials he earned as a student in Hixson High’s health careers pathway allowed him to get hired at CHI Memorial, where he’s worked as a patient care technician since his senior year of high school.
One of his favorite parts of the program, Haroon said, was being able to do hands-on training at Memorial with his classmates, and the training helped him test for his patient care technician certification his junior year and his certified nursing assistant license the following year.
Each of those industry certifications is an opportunity for students to bring experience into the workforce and identify whether it’s a career they enjoy, said Olivia Bagby, the district’s Future Ready students director. That rise in opportunity is one of the top things she points to when she reflects on the impact of the district’s effort to prepare students for life after high school.