Laura Scheibe: CTE is growing in South Dakota

As we celebrate Career and Technical Education month, this is a great opportunity to say thank you, and to celebrate your amazing work. You are providing students with cutting edge, industry grade experiences and skills to help them prepare to drive the economic future of our state.

How do I know? Because I see you in the day to day work you are doing, and I have seen it in the more than $18 million in competitive grant projects we have been fortunate to award in the past three years. We set the bar high for grants, and time and again, you rose to the challenge and proved that you would be savvy stewards of those funds, working with your communities, your local businesses, and stakeholders across the spectrum.

As we see the pictures and the stories of those completed projects start to roll in, I am so excited for the access our students across South Dakota will have. The impact will reverberate for years to come in quality CTE programs.

But we’re not done yet! Ok, so while we may be back to more traditional levels of funding, now is not the time to hit the brakes on innovation. Last month we unveiled South Dakota’s new, modernized Career Cluster framework along with a timeline for rollout. My team and I cannot wait to build on the momentum we have seen from you all in the past several years and implement a CTE framework that responds to industry advancements, postsecondary opportunities, and what our students need to prepare for their futures.

We hope you are as excited as we are and will join us in building the next chapter of Career and Technical Education in our state. Please visit the CTE page on DOE’s website for more information about CTE in South Dakota.