The number of students in Lewis-Clark State College’s School of Career & Technical Education has increased by 18.5%, according to the school’s official fall census day numbers. It’s the largest jump in fall-to-fall CTE headcount on record.
LC State administrators believe recent reorganization and marketing strategies have had a lot to do with the surge.
“For the past few years, we’ve been looking closely at our organizational structure and for ways to reduce duplication and silos and increase career pathways for students,” said Jeff Ober, dean of the School of Career & Technical Education.
Specifically, Ober introduced the concept of career clusters, an idea growing in popularity across the nation in which programs are grouped more by subject matter than by traditional divisional lines. For example, LC State’s medical administrative assistant and medical assistant programs, a part of the school’s CTE offerings, are now grouped with the Nursing & Health Sciences Division, providing students and faculty even broader access to healthcare education-related resources, collaboration, and pathways.
“Nursing students, for example,” said Ober, “who may decide they do not want to be a nurse have immediate and broader access to advisors and instructors who can help them find another career in healthcare.”
Other strategic shifts have included grouping graphic communications and packaging design with the communications department in the Humanities Division, early childhood development with the Teacher Education & Mathematics Division, hospitality management with the Business & Computer Science Division, and legal studies and paralegal with the justice studies department in the Social Sciences Division.
“Communications majors now more clearly see they have options in graphic design and many are looking at obtaining the two-year degree on the way to their four-year degree,” Ober said. “Teacher education is working with early childhood development on creating new options for teacher certification that include early childhood, and members of the technical advisory committee from paralegal are excited that the paralegal students now have even more access to instructors and faculty with different experiences, such as practicing lawyers.”
Administrators also feel that a strategic three-year marketing campaign, focused solely on CTE, has increased awareness about the programs.
“LC State believes strongly in the incredible value and importance of career-technical programs, not just for our institution but for the region and state,” LC State President Cynthia Pemberton said. “We’re excited about the growth we’re seeing, the synergies created, and the successful careers these students will have.”
Headcount in CTE programs at LC State rose from 276 in fall 2023 to 327 in fall 2024. At census day, the largest CTE programs were diesel (38 students), graphic communications (25), auto mechanics (25), welding (24), fire service (23), and industrial electronics (22).
For a full list of all of LC State’s CTE programs visit www.lcsc.edu/degrees.
