The Davis School District just took another step in preparing its students for success after high school — even if students want to forgo the traditional route of a four-year degree.
The district on Thursday formalized a concurrent enrollment agreement with Davis Technical College, creating a first-of-its-kind pilot program that will allow students to receive both technical college and high school credit for completing career and technical education courses taken through their respective high schools.
This agreement between a local school district and a technical college — signed by Davis Tech President Darin Brush and Davis School District Superintendent Dan Linford — is the first in the Beehive State.
“This new agreement has powerful, real-world significance for our students. It makes their journey along the pathways to college and careers much easier to navigate,” Brush said. “We are grateful for the partnership we enjoy with Davis School District, which focuses our mutual efforts on the success of all students and leads to important collaborations like this.”
Additionally, the courses students are able to take through the program will prepare them for “high-wage, high-demand careers” and create an education pathway leading to a certificate from Davis Tech and opportunities to transfer the credits to other Utah colleges and universities, according to Davis Tech officials.
Students in the Davis School District will be able to earn college credit at Davis Tech by taking the following classes at the Davis Catalyst Center:
- Business Marketing
- Construction Management
- Culinary Arts
- Commercial Art
- Pharmacy Technician I
- Advanced Computer Programming
- Video Production
- Web Development
Opened in May 2022, the Davis Catalyst Center is a state-of-the-art education center that focuses on career and technical education pathways and enables students to work on advanced projects through partnerships with real-world businesses and organizations such as Epic Games, Adobe, Intermountain Healthcare, Hill Air Force Base and many others.
“Here, we partner with industry to create the next generation of professionals,” said Brian Hunt, the center’s director. “We focus on technical skills, but we also focus on professional skills. This is a special place where students work on real-world projects.”
At the opening of the center, Hunt touted its strong career and technical education offerings for Davis County high-schoolers. “We have amazing CTE teachers all across the district and what this is is just adding one more opportunity for our students,” he said.
Students enrolled in programs at the Catalyst Center attend there for two class periods of their school day, every other day. Any Davis School District high school student who has started a career and technical education pathway at their own high school is eligible to apply for a spot at Catalyst Center, if their chosen pathway aligns with one of the center’s pathways.
“Davis School District is proud to partner with Davis Technical College to create more academic and technical choices for our students,” Linford said during the signing of the agreement with Davis Tech. “We hope that this partnership entices our students to look at these opportunities, create pathways to a successful life and learn and flourish as a result of this collaborative effort.”
Davis Catalyst is an one of several CAPS Network affiliate programs in the state of Utah.
The original article from KSL Broadcasting can be found here.
