February has been designated as Career and Technical Education Month, and the Crenshaw County School system’s CTE program is gearing up for an activity-filled month.

Our program structure has been devised and organized into four program clusters: architecture and construction; business, management and administration; health science and human services.

With these clusters, every student can reach for the stars. They help students discover career pathways so they can be fully prepared for the fields they want to pursue.

Our mission is to provide a competency-based applied learning curriculum based on state standards and planned collaboratively between educators with the assistance of an advisory committee and employers.

Our program focuses on academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning, critical thinking and problem solving using real-world scenarios.

The program places emphasis on life skills, work attitudes, employability skills and business occupation-specific skills, preparing our students to be successful, life-long learners, to have a common vision, finding a future in the workforce environment and its every-changing demands.

One of the goals of CTE month is to involve media exposure in providing the necessary information to the community.

It’s a month-long event adding spirit to the workplace and strengthening school morale.

This year’s theme is “Invest in your future.”

Activities will include a calendar of activities from each instructor, focusing on projects, guest speakers, field trips and other interventions with local businesses and industries; displaying CTE month signs at all three local schools; public service announcements on program activities and CT/student organizations; and contacting local businesses, civic groups and churches to display CTE materials, brochures, posters and contact information.