Trending at Tolles: Career prep is college prep – and a great resume builder
Today’s college-bound student needs more than a handful of AP courses and some extracurricular leadership roles to get noticed. They need real-world experience – beyond a summer job.
At Tolles Career & Technical Center, students can spend a full year, or two, learning the ropes of their chosen profession firsthand. This can give students a leg up on their peers when it comes to college applications – and can even yield college credits.
For those unfamiliar with Tolles, we offer 20 full- and half-day career-prep programs for high-school students at our main campus in Plain City, as well as numerous satellite programs in the seven school districts we serve – including Dublin and Hilliard.
Tolles provides hands-on experience in popular fields, such as nursing, business, veterinary medicine, engineering and early-childhood education. Students on our main campus learn in real work environments, including a fully operational restaurant, community preschool, small animal-care facility, medical lab, fire lab and an auto-repair center.
At Tolles, we believe experience is the best teacher.
Specialized career education is becoming even more valuable as labor shortages in specific industries – such as nursing, teaching and construction – translate into higher earnings. Enrollment in career-technical education is up dramatically across Ohio with Tolles, alone, welcoming about 150 more high-school juniors this fall than we did the previous school year.
To accommodate this influx of students, Tolles created additional sections in its four highest-demand programs.
Although most students come to Tolles as juniors, we will begin offering more “senior-only” programs next school year that will provide certifications in specific fields, as well as three and a half elective credits to transfer back to the student’s home high school.
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These programs will meet for half the school day, with a choice of morning or afternoon, allowing students flexibility in scheduling courses at their home high school and even permitting senior early release.
Here’s a sneak peak at three of the “senior-only” programs we’re planning to add next fall:
A business program that would yield a Lean Six Sigma yellow belt, Microsoft Excel certification, a project-management certification, leadership certification and an entrepreneurial-education certificate.
A health-care program that gives students the choice of earning either an emergency medical technician (EMT) certification or a state tested nursing assistant (STNA) designation.
A drone program that would allow seniors to earn their FAA Part 107 drone license.
Want to learn more? Applications for the 2023-24 school year are now open on our website: tollestech.com. Priority enrollment ends Jan. 16. Try Tolles. We’ll help you stand out.
Todd F. Hoadley is the superintendent and CEO of Tolles Career & Technical Center, serving seven central Ohio school districts, including Dubin and Hilliard.
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Trending at Tolles: Career prep is college prep – and a great resume builder
