PROVIDENCE – In Miss Roberta’s class, the eighth grade pupils are hunched over robots the size of Rubik’s cubes. Sitting next to them are their teachers, pre-engineering students from the Providence Career and Technical Academy.
In a first-ever pilot in Providence, career and technology students are paid $ 15 an hour to serve as mentors in West Broadway Middle School. The mission is twofold: to introduce middle school students to the magic of technology and to help alleviate nervousness as they transition to high school.
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“Internships serve to bridge the gap between middle and high school,” said Hope Fernandez, whose organization, Community Action Partnership of Providence, pays students’ salaries. “It gives PCTA kids an adult mindset. Middle school kids see the connection between middle school and high school ”.
Both sides benefit from the partnership.
PCTA students must register 80 to 100 hours on a workplace internship where they not only deepen their skills, but learn soft skills such as punctuality, communication, and show initiative.
“We are showing students that the industry values their skills,” said Brett Dickens, director of career and technical education for the district. “It builds a connection with their future. This is a real job ”.
‘A sense of family’
Hyber Gamboa, a pre-engineering student at PCTA, sees himself as a role model for his eighth grade students, someone who can guide them through the sometimes bumpy path of high school and beyond. He is also a cheerleader for career and tech education, extolling the opportunity for students to engage adults in a real-world environment.
“We need to help them figure out if they want to choose PCTA as their path,” he said in a conversation Tuesday on West Broadway.
Most eighth graders choose a high school during their first semester, but Providence also offers a district-level introduction to career and technical education during their seventh grade.
“It gives us a sense of family,” said Jayla Tevyaw, who will be attending Classical High School next year. “The PCTA kids help us with our expectations of going to high school so we will feel less alone.”
“It gives them the power of choice,” said their robotics teacher, Roberta Engle. “We want second and third graders to be aware of what’s possible.”
What PCTA offers to students
Vocational and technical education has come a long way since the vocational schools of the 1960s and 1970s, which were often treated as a dump for students who were not considered college material.
Seven high schools in Providence offer professional and technical programs, with the PCTA the most prominent.
PCTA offers 22 career strands, from pre-engineering to graphics, from cooking to construction. The whole school serves as a classroom. Electricity students can tear down a ceiling and access the wiring above it. The culinary program features its own restaurant and commercial-grade cuisine.
Each student earns industry credentials in their specialization.
At the PCTA, students must demonstrate that they are ready for an internship. Employers then rate them based on soft skills: punctuality, safety and something called “coachability” – whether they are open to the guidance of a manager.
Internship opportunities range from the Rhode Island School of Design to Tasca Automotive. A few years ago, PCTA students built a house from scratch in the West End.
Returning to the partnership with West Broadway, Dickens said, “It’s not telling someone what it’s like to be an engineer. He is showing them.
Linda Borg covers education for the Journal.