East Los Angeles College attendees engage in lunch discussion groups.
Our Career Technical Education (CTE) Workshops provided critical insight into careers of the future, supporting and helping strengthen high school and nonprofit CTE programs. With three workshops held throughout LA County, over 150 teachers, counselors, administrators and nonprofit program managers attended sessions to learn about the latest industry trends. Information gleaned provided educators with a macroeconomic overview of LA County industries, and specific industry highlights including healthcare, advanced transportation, cloud computing, and aviation.
Kaiser Permanente was the presenting sponsor of the workshops, with supporting sponsorships by The Coca Cola Foundation and The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Workshops were hosted through a partnership with Propel L.A., the LA County Office of Education, and the LA Trust for Children’s Health.
Tyler Laferriere, Associate Economist with the Institute for Applied Economics at the LAEDC, provided a macro-economic overview of industry in LA County at all three workshops. He provided great insight into career trends, highlighting industries that are growing, hiring, and offering livable wage jobs. His presentation was a highlight of each workshop, engaging attendees with valuable takeaways to further build-out their CTE programs.
The workshops kicked off on the campus of Mission College, where attendees heard from Salomon Davila, an Amazon Web Services professional, Esther Soliman of LA Unified School District, and Andrea Castellanos with Chrysalis. Breakout sessions provided attendees with information on the latest industry trends, including the healthcare industry led by Don Bradburn of Kaiser Permanente and Maryjane Puffer of LA Trust for Children’s Health. An industry overview of cloud computing was provided in an additional breakout session, led by Salomon Davila and Sherry Shojaei of Career Ladders Project. Attendees also received a tour of the healthcare program at Mission College. It was a great start to the series of workshops.
Rio Hondo Nursing Lab
The next workshop was held at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) with panelists Leo Medina and Mayra Rodriguez of ELAC, Lindsey Heisser of Bixel Exchange, and Rick Espinoza of Montebello Unified School District. Don Bradburn again provided healthcare industry insights, along with Monica Guardian of AltaMed. Colleen Perez and Gabriel Solorio of Montebello USD also spoke about healthcare careers, Humberto Gallegos and Celeste Montenegro of ELAC spoke about engineering careers, and Peter Ruvalcaba provided a campus tour.
Rio Hondo Automotive Center
The series of workshops ended at Rio Hondo College, with panelists Katie Mishler of LA County, Dr. Greg Francois of Paramount Unified School District, and Simon Lopez of Goodwill sharing their knowledge and expertise on how to best work with the business community. A tour of Rio Hondo’s automotive center was led by Professor John Frala, and a tour of the campus’ nursing lab was led by Shari Herzfeld, also with LA County. Rebecca Ratzkin of Community Health Council spoke about healthcare careers, and Kasbar Mirkhanian of West LA College spoke about careers in aviation.
Attendees – from high schools, school districts, and nonprofits around the county – were all thrilled to received targeted knowledge to help them build upon their CTE programs. Through surveys, attendees responded that they enjoyed “learning about future employment opportunities for students”, particularly enjoyed the industry and economic overview given by Tyler, and look forward to incorporating “advice from the panel on how to connect with employers”. These workshops specifically identified a need by CTE educators on the ongoing need for industry updates and information.
Propel L.A. thanks the sponsors of these workshops for helping to prepare our educators, as they prepare students for careers of the future.
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