Published Monday, June 12th, 2017
A joint venture between the City of West Point, Wayne State College, Northeast Community College, Educational Service Unit 2, and Pathways 2 Tomorrow (P2T), a consortium of six area school districts.
Wayne State College has joined several area educational institutions and the City of West Point in formalizing a collaborative effort to expand career and technical education in east central Nebraska.
At the conclusion of a special meeting of the West Point City Council on Monday, June 12, Mayor Marlene Johnson and others signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to create a new partnership that will provide career and technical education opportunities for area high school students, adult learners, and business and industry training. As a result of this demonstrated level of collaboration between the educational partners, a Career and Technical Training Facility will be constructed near the city’s Nielsen Community Center, 200 Anna Stalp Avenue.
The proposed 15,000-square-foot facility is a joint venture between the City of West Point, Wayne State College, Northeast Community College, Educational Service Unit 2, and Pathways 2 Tomorrow (P2T), a consortium of six school districts consisting of Bancroft-Rosalie, Lyons-Decatur Northeast, Oakland-Craig, Pender, West Point-Beemer and Wisner-Pilger.
“Wayne State College is excited to join Pathways 2 Tomorrow,” said Dr. Marysz Rames, president of Wayne State College. “This strong partnership will ensure students in the Bancroft-Rosalie, Lyons-Decatur, Oakland-Craig, Pender, West Point-Beemer, and Wisner-Pilger schools have expanded opportunities to explore career pathways through a broad range of educational options.”
The collaborative effort among the entities is focused on establishing unique career pathways for students in various fields, resulting in access to career and technical education that is not available in the six high schools.
By fall 2019, up to six pathways are anticipated to be available to students in the P2T consortium with coursework offered at the new career and technical education facility in West Point.
Based on a report by the National Skills Coalition, Nebraska continues to experience a shortage of middle-skill and high-skill workers making career and technical education even more important. By 2022, 59 percent of all occupations in Nebraska will be middle-skill jobs that will require some form of education beyond high school. Additionally, another 22 percent of jobs will be high-skill and require education beyond an associate degree.
The West Point Community Foundation will serve as the local non-profit 501c3 and receive all donations to the project. All gifts will be tax deductible.
Operations in the new facility are expected to begin in fall 2018.