The Lower Pioneer Valley Career and Technical Education Center (Career TEC) is an extension of the seven member high schools served by the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative. Transportation to and from the Career TEC is provided by the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative. Enrolling at Career TEC is a part of the process of course selection in the home high school.

Students may meet home high school graduation requirements in areas of math, science and computer technology by successfully completing a two (2) year course of study at Career TEC.

With everything a student has to consider when choosing courses, it is not always easy to understand how educational planning will help to shape their future. Educational planning, along with career exploration, allows students to engage in job shadowing, college shadowing, and a work-based learning internship. Together this builds the knowledge to make an informed decision about course selections. Course selections that are tied to a career pathway, strengthens a student's skill-set and better prepares them for making life-long decisions.

For more information on educational planning and career exploration visit the Career Center in your high school and ask for the Career and Technical Educational Center Educational Planner.

To learn more about the Lower Pioneer Valley Career and Technical Education Center ask your guidance counselor to arrange a visit for you. For more information call Career TEC @ 593-5586.

Making the decision to attend Career TEC is not always easy. Here are a few points that you may want to consider as you look toward your future:

**Choosing a Career TEC course of study means you will spend ½ day at your home high school for your academic programs and ½ day in a career and technical program.
**You may continue to participate in sports and extra curricular activities at your home high school.
**With completion of a career and technical program your home high school diploma will be complemented with a Certificate of Occupational Competency from Career TEC.
**Course selections tied to a career pathway will strengthen your skills and better prepare you for making life-long decisions.
**Qualified students will have the opportunity to participate in work-based learning through cooperative education, internships and job mentoring programs.
**Tech Prep opportunities are available to you in qualified programs.
**Post secondary / college planning and placement assistance is available through the Career TEC placement counselor.
**You may enter your chosen occupation directly after high school or continue training at a community college, technical school, or other post-secondary institution and work part-time.

The Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative Career and Technical Educational Center offers vocational-technical training in conjunction with a sound academic program to the seven member school districts of Agawam, East Longmeadow, Hampden-Wilbraham Regional, Longmeadow, Ludlow, Southwick-Tolland Regional, and West Springfield.

The central purpose of the Career and Technical Education Center is to provide our students with learning experiences that will ensure that graduates have the skills and training to enable them to become productive and responsible members of the community. Graduates have the option of securing gainful employment upon graduation, continuing formal studies at the post secondary level, or pursuing a combination of both.

We recognize that students differ in level of ability, rate of learning, interests, and motivation. We accept the challenge of providing diversified and state of the art programs to ensure that our students emerge from the educational process as skilled workers, competent technicians, and responsible citizens. Our curriculum provides students with the knowledge and thinking skills they will need to become active citizens and contributing employees in our democratic society. Our student activity reflects the determination to instill in our students a desire for life long learning which will help to provide direction in their lives as they seek to reach their full potential.

At the Career and Technical Education Center all participants in the educational process have the right to be treated with dignity and respect at all times. They also have the responsibility to participate in, to the best of their abilities, in accomplishing mutual educational goals.

• To ensure that all students regardless of sex, race, religion, disabilities, sexual orientation, language, culture, or economic status are given equal opportunity in all career, technical and academic programs.
• To provide an environment for all staff members and employees that promotes development of special programs.
• Maintain open communication with home high schools to enhance integration of academic and technical curriculum.
• Cooperate in developing and implementing curriculum changes that reflect current technologies.
• To recruit and sustain a responsible, committed, and cooperative teaching staff who are interested in providing quality education to each one of their students and who will continue to improve themselves professionally.
• To provide each student with an opportunity to develop his/her full potential by providing training that fosters the acquisition of personal, social, and ethical qualities, and that will prepare the student to cope with decision-making, problem-solving, and communication in today’s complex workplace.
• To provide students with a positive atmosphere for learning, including a physical environment that is maintained with appropriate equipment and materials.
• To maintain ongoing counseling services to provide for personal, career, substance abuse, adjustment, and vocational counseling, as well as other services necessary to the individual's immediate needs and developmental growth.
• To provide a system of vocational-technical and academic assessment, monitoring, and evaluation of student potential, and ability, and performance.
• To implement the Individual Education Plan (IEP) process, as outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Massachusetts Comprehensive Special Education Law, Chapter 766.
• To encourage incoming students to explore various occupational areas and pursue a career based on the individual’s aptitude, potential interests, and awareness of the requirements of that occupation.
• To adopt and import workplace competencies and foundational skills utilized by effective and competent workers in the demanding age of high performance workplaces.
• To provide academic remediation and instruction for basic skills in reading, writing, calculating, and communicating when appropriate.
• To provide instruction and supervised work-based learning to enable students to develop in their chosen vocational fields.
• To foster a sound work ethic by requiring students to be punctual, to attend school regularly, and to assume individual responsibility for gaining skill and proficiency in their trade.
• To encourage participation in extra-curricular activities, through which students have the opportunity to develop a sense of self-worth, leadership potential, teamwork, and the exercise of personal talents and interests.
• To ensure that the opportunities for and the advantages of career and technical education are presented to prospective students and their parents, so that informed decisions can be made when choosing a vocational-technical path and making career decisions.
• To elicit community support, by involving local citizens on program advisory boards; encouraging use of the school facility; coordinating students and programs to participate in, and complete community service projects.