CTECH wraps up second year, sends students into workforce

May 13—HOBBS — Suiza Ramos' hands were steady as she carefully filled pastries with cream, dozens of other delicacies were waiting on her pan to go to the next station for more cream and chocolate sprinkles.

As Ramos worked with the cream puffs, she was earning class credit at the Career and Technical Education Center of Hobbs. A junior in high school, Ramos is in her second year in the CTECH program.

CTECH is a way for high school students to earn high school credits, college credits, work certifications and internships all at the same time.

The program offers six career pathways: energy, manufacturing, transportation, culinary hospitality, information technology and construction architecture.

CTECH spokesperson Kristy Hughes said in the program's nearly two years of existence, plenty of students have gone from high school directly to good-paying jobs. The current school year has just a couple of weeks left.

"Our goal is for every student to have a career-driven job when they get out of the school," Hughes said.

Students who haven't even graduated yet were hired at a hiring event at CTECH a couple of weeks ago, she said, getting positions at local restaurants, energy companies and architectural firms.

"Every day I keep hearing, 'Oh, I went for an interview. Oh, I went for a job interview. Oh, I got the job,'" she said. "So we market our students. We have industry partners in our building every day."

Ramos is applying for a culinary job at the local country club she found out about during class when a chef came to cook for them. She said she feels like she has an advantage in her field because of CTECH. After graduation next year, she hopes to go to culinary school.

"I think it brings a lot of opportunities," she said, "because if I wasn't in culinary, I would have never known there was an opening in the kitchen somewhere else."

As she kept filling pastries, on the other side of the school, sophomore Dana Marey was working with her classmates to fix an oil and gas pump training system with water leaking out of it.

Marey wants to continue her family lineage in the oil and gas industry, so she's learning the basics of the energy field through CTECH. After she graduates, Marey wants to go to junior college in Hobbs and then work in the oil field.

"I'm following my grandpa's steps," she said.

Located right on top of the most fruitful oil and gas sector in the state, the Permian Basin, the oil and gas pathway makes sense in Hobbs, energy instructor Gilbert Ramirez said.

"What we try to do is teach them the basic fundamentals of how to pump an oil field," he said.

But while many students have family members working in oil and gas, not all of them want to continue that legacy. Hughes said students have family members in the fossil fuel industry and see them working long hours or are discouraged by their parents about going into the field.

She said the school has really had to market the oil and gas pathway.

"That was a career path that they really weren't interested in, even though it was a high-paying salary position," she said.

Electrical is a popular pathway, she said, and students also gravitate toward welding and culinary.

Hughes spoke over the loud noises of students on the other side of the large warehouse-like room.

The busy atmosphere is normal for the facility. Students spend two-hour blocks at the CTECH facility, either in the more traditional classroom spaces on the second story or in the more hands-on areas on the ground floor.

Hughes said in most cases, students can opt into the CTECH program as a sophomore regardless of grades, attendance or discipline history. She said CTECH has also freed up some space at Hobbs High, which she said is the largest high school in New Mexico with over 3,000 students.

"With adding that space, we also were adding workforce development," Hughes said.

She said 768 Hobbs High School students are ending the year participating in CTECH, a decrease from the 1,100 students who opted in at the start of the year. She said that decrease can be because seniors take classes off or participate in the school's work program.

There are about 75 students who commute from areas like Lovington or Eunice to spend classroom time at the technical education facility, Hughes said.

Lessons learned

Hughes said when CTECH first started, there was a huge local demand for the new trades services, but teachers had to balance that work with the more educational aspects of the program.

For example, she said, people expected a lot of catering services from the CTECH students right off the bat.

"We had to put the brakes on. We needed to make sure that that was streamlined through our standards and our curriculum that we were teaching, that we weren't spending our time doing outside activity away from the actual curriculum," she said.

To meet the community needs, CTECH adjusted its model.

Culinary teacher Maria Lee said next year, CTECH will offer a capstone class focused on catering, budget and business.

She said a couple of kids graduating this year are going to culinary school.

"So they are using those skills and hopefully will have their own business at some point," she said. "I would love for them to open their own businesses here in our community and give back to our community to continue to grow it."

Hughes said nearly two dozen teachers lead CTECH's six career pathways, half coming from traditional teaching backgrounds and the other half coming from the relevant industry.

She said CTECH had to build a culture up with its new programming and building. She thinks that's definitely happened.

"We're doing what we said we were gonna do," Hughes said. "We are doing things that we dreamed of doing."

Hobbs Municipal Schools Superintendent Gene Strickland said the conversation to give vocational students as much opportunity as advanced placement students began in 2017. At the same time, he said, CTECH meets a community need by preparing a workforce.

"As we continue to live this experience, it's really our charge to create that opportunity for every kid, that we have relevant educational experiences throughout their high school career," he said.

Strickland said CTECH is trying to secure the No. 1 spot in the country for credentialing high school students. It is in second place now.

Hobbs Municipal Schools alone couldn't have created CTECH, he said. It took a lot of community support.

"It's exceeded all of our expectations," he said.

Money is a factor, too.

Hughes said the school is publicly and privately funded, with money from the city of Hobbs, a coalition of primarily oil and gas companies called the Permian Strategic Partnership, Hobbs-based JF Maddox Foundation and the Daniels Fund.

And career technical education is very expensive, Hughes said, referencing wiring, wood, food, aluminum and other various materials the career pathways require.

Strickland said CTECH operates at a negative in terms of cost to educate students.

He said there are ongoing discussions about what the funding formula looks like and potentially changing it. CTECH has one of the smallest allocations in New Mexico as one of the least-funded school districts in the state, Strickland said. That's why CTECH has gotten creative with getting grants.

"If we want our state to continue to thrive, there needs to be a heavier investment on career technical education, on those industries that are feeding our economy in New Mexico," he said. "And right now, that's being done locally through partnerships."

CTECH pays for training costs that employers would have to pay for anyway, Strickland said, allowing students to go into the workforce immediately employable and "return that investment into their communities."

"We know that we're making a difference in students. We're making a difference in their families and ultimately making a difference in our community," Strickland said.