VCTC Foundation created to accept donations for students on tech career paths

Valley Career & Technical Center has created a foundation for acceptance of monetary and equipment donations to enable students to pursue technical careers.

Sixty percent of jobs in Virginia will require a technical education in the coming years.

“Valley Tech is our area’s answer to that,” said Kim Wood at Waynesboro School Board’s regular meeting Tuesday night. Twenty-five percent of Staunton, Augusta County and Waynesboro students attend courses at VCTC. “That’s really impressive for our area, because, in most areas, it’s usually under 10 percent that go to a tech school.”

She added that VCTC has added aircraft mechanics as a course and 95 percent of students are involved in work-based learning.

“Having that experience is just really one of the most important things you can do as a student in high school or college,” Wood said.

She has attended local school board and city council meetings to introduce the VCTC Foundation, which gathers donations through the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge.

“It’s been kind of a long time coming. We wanted the school to have a way for people in the community or businesses and for parents and other people to be able to donate, support the school and have it go through a legitimate foundation so we’re able to do that now,” Wood said.

Most VCTC students participate in youth apprenticeships and then stay with the company after high school. Ninety percent of VCTC students go into careers in what they studied at the Fishersville campus.

Waynesboro Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeff Cassell said that the school system has acquired teachers through VCTC’s teaching program.

“We actually have students who graduate from Waynesboro High School after doing the teacher apprenticeship [at VCTC] and one young lady said: ‘I’ll be back in four years and I want to teach in Waynesboro.’ And, so it does create the pipeline and it’s great when we have people who are homegrown who want to be in our school division,” Waynesboro Schools Assistant Superintendent Dr. Ryan Barber said.