As college costs continue to soar and demand for skilled workers in many sectors grows, more high schoolers are considering career paths that don’t require four-year degrees.
At the Career Magnet Center in Lafourche Parish, where juniors and seniors are bussed in daily from three neighboring high schools to study trades or earn college credits, interest in career and technical education, or CTE, is rising. The center’s enrollment has nearly doubled in the last three years to 530 students, according to Bonnie Lefort, the CTE coordinator at the center.
Lefort’s job is to help students decide which track is right for them, whether that be obtaining a certificate in welding or taking college-level medical courses for college credits that can be put toward a nursing degree…