It’s a big decision.
What to do after high school? Or after college?

While some students already know what they want to do, others are still thinking about it.
However, both groups can learn more about their possible careers through some of the 25 programs PG offers.

“They all fall under different career clusters based on health science, audio visual, STEM, business , law, education. Our goal is for students to think about what they want to pursue in the future,” CTE Director Kendra Bates said.

Mrs. Bates said that the district has expanded Career and Technology courses from seventh grade through 12th grade.”This will allow them to narrow in on which one of these clusters they would like to finish in,” she said. “If they can get four credits within the same program of study, they’re considered Complete, and they can take an industry based certification test to make them completely job ready.”

These certifications allow students to have an opportunity to get a job that pays higher than minimum wage which could go toward college tuition or any other expenses.

“If you’re going straight to work, you could have a job doing what your certificate is — for example, in journalism or graphic design, you can get your Adobe design certification that shows you can work for a marketing or graphic design company and they’re more likely to hire you if they don’t have to train you,” Mrs. Bates said.

For students interested in a job as a medical assistant, they can learn phlebotomy and could go to any doctor’s office in town and get a job drawing blood.. “A lot of these certificates they want you to have by the time you graduate college anyway so you will already be a step ahead,” Mrs. Bates said.

Along with these certificates PG also partners with Texarkana College which gives students the opportunity to graduate with their associates degree.

“You can get your associates through TC in any pathway that would require you to take a lot of additional classes online as well as summertime, depending on when you start your degree planning,” Texarkana College Coordinator Kaitlyn Page said. “Most kids graduate with their core complete, which is essentially your core hours which apply to almost every public university in the state of Texas.”

Mrs. Bates encouraged students to talk to her or their counselor about taking pathway courses or certification.