Tech Advantage

PRACTICAL SOLUTION

Many students who live in low- to middle-income families need to find employment immediately after high school. TCTC can speed up the possibility that they can make a livable salary soon after graduating, especially in courses that offer dual enrollment.

All of TCTC’s programs can be completed in a year or less and lead to an industry certification at an affordable cost. What can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, housing, food costs, books and course materials at a university are available for under a third of that at TCTC.

“What would have cost me $22,000 at Florida universities cost just a little over $7,000,” says Taylor Davis, a practical nursing graduate. “Almost everyone in my class also had some kind of funding which helped, such as Pell grants, scholarships, or money from the workforce agency, CareerSource Research Coast.”

Davis is the daughter of Indian River County Property Appraiser Wesley Davis. She and 47 other students from the medical program graduated Dec. 14, 2018, at a formal ceremony held at the Vero Beach High School.

“It was a yearlong project and I am really proud of her,” says her father. “I am also proud that we have this kind of program right here in our backyard. What I hope happens is that they continue to grow the program, because the number of people that applied this time and didn’t make it could have a graduation class three times this size. This is something that the school board of Indian River County should be so proud of for their forward thinking.”

Also included in that group was the daughter of Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey. Kennedy Currey was the valedictorian for the medical assisting program. She is the chief’s oldest daughter and, at 24, is beginning a promising phase in her life.
With their certifications, both Davis and Currey have a hard-to-get admission advantage over other applicants at Indian River State College to continue their education for additional medical training.

SCHOOL BOARD SUPPORT
Zorc was involved in the initial millage discussions with the school board on whether to go forward with the technical college.

“The TCTC was a vision put into action three years ago by Principal Christi Shields,” says Zorc. “In three short years, the vision has become reality with the robust support of the school board, county taxpayers, and district leadership.”

Zorc relayed these statistics:

“Parts of our county have high levels of poverty, which have been present for generations. More than half of our student population qualify for free and reduced lunch (62 percent). In the latest census, one in four of our children live in poverty (25 percent). This is an opportunity to break the cycles of generational poverty in Indian River County and remove the barriers of transportation and accessibility to career certifications.

“I believe that the school district’s expansion of its technical college will promote economic diversity by serving students of any age, race, or economic class. It will provide a pathway out of poverty for residents who have heretofore been unable to financially access workforce training programs. Job training will lead to employment in a job market searching for a skilled workforce and growth for local businesses with the added benefit of financial stability for families.”

TOURING THE CAMPUS

Many youths from student organizations have toured the TCTC campus since it opened. The hope is that one of the courses will connect with a few students who will choose a path to their future.

“When I decided to take the students from the Gifford Youth Achievement Center to TCTC it was because I wanted to provide them with an opportunity to explore other career and technical programs,” says GYAC guidance counselor Carrie Williams. “TCTC provided a behind-the-scenes view of what each career offered, to give them the opportunity to decide if this was a field in which they could see themselves taking on as a career.”

On the tour, many of the students were surprised by the sight of a very realistically staged hospital ward, which included many human-looking patient mannequins.

Others were fascinated by the virtual reality welding program in the construction and trade building, vying for a try at writing their name in metal. What they thought would be another boring school tour turned into a fun, eye-opening experience to some achievable dreams.

All the training is very realistic, using top-of-the-line mannequins and trade machinery used in real jobs, but none was more real than in the phlebotomy classes where students must learn to draw blood by using each other as patients.

Students first practice on a very realistic disembodied arm, but after initial “sticks,” they must become used to working on real people. Students are required to complete almost double the sticks as in many other schools.

“Our courses have a higher passing rate for national certification exams than other areas of the country,” says medical assisting instructor Tracy Mitchell. “Our programs not only fulfill a need for the community, but it fulfills it to a really high level for a top-notch education.”

TCTC also works with many businesses to help its students find jobs right after graduation, and that translates into higher levels of employment, lower poverty levels and brighter futures for the people in the area.

See the original article in the print publication