Career and Technical Education in Kalamazoo
Summary
Kalamazoo County passed a Career and Technical Education (CTE) millage in 2019 and wanted to use this new source of funding to restructure CTE delivery within the Kalamazoo Regional Education Service Agency (KRESA). In addition to expanding career awareness and exploration opportunities among younger students, millage revenues were designated to build a new countywide technical center. KRESA approached YPL to ask for assistance identifying CTE programs the center should offer. This project sought to answer the following research questions:
- Which occupations are projected to exhibit the greatest job growth in Southwest Michigan?
- What is the earning potential and required level of educational training for each of these high-growth industries?
- Which CTE career clusters align best with high-growth, high-wage occupations?
YPL's work involved a literature review, descriptive statistics, and focus groups before preparing a report and recommendations for KRESA.
