Career & Technical Education

Skilled tradespeople are at the core of vibrant rural communities and economies. They are trained specialists who provide the essential services that keep our homes, businesses and community services running smoothly. They help us prevent, respond to and recover from community disasters. And they are key players in bringing rural economic development innovations to life. Careers in skilled trades also provide a pathway for people to stay in rural communities and make a stable living.

“This program has been great—to gift students a tool or something that is relevant to their success in college and in the workplace is so powerful.”

–Dr. Kim Freeze, Former Dean of Career Technical Education programs at Rogue Community College

Current Reports

Program Outline

Regional Community College Career & Technical Education Program

Career and technical education (CTE) has emerged as a consistent ingredient of vibrant rural economies. The Roundhouse Foundation has elevated CTE as a strategic priority, recognizing its power in rural spaces. At the forefront is its Regional Community College Career & Technical Education Program. This program is an innovative, impactful way for philanthropy to invest in CTE and reduce barriers that can keep students from accessing credentials and skills for jobs in high-demand sectors. It addresses hidden costs of CTE – essential non-tuition expenses for equipment tools, protective gear and other requirements for many CTE courses – that too often present obstacles for students and their families.

Any funder can take this approach. The program is customizable, scalable and efficient. Funders of any size and in any place can directly and meaningfully impact students and communities.

News & Highlights

iLab Internship at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center

Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center focuses on educating students to solve problems for science and industry.

Regional Community College Career Technical Education Program

The Roundhouse Foundation, a private family foundation based in Sisters, Oregon, is deeply committed to strengthening and celebrating rural Oregon and Indigenous communities.

Firing on All Cylinders: Tillamook High School Mechanics program

While many of Oregon’s trade electives like shop and welding have phased out of the offerings over the years, Tillamook High School has been able to keep these programs alive, thanks to dedicated staff like Johnny Begin.

Early School Success Academy and Teach Rural Oregon at EOS

Since 2003, Portland based nonprofit The Children’s Institute has been working to level the playing field for children who face institutional or systemic barriers to opportunity.

Community College Trains Next Generation of Maritime Workforce

The Roundhouse Foundation played a role in providing essentials for basic safety training, including a Viking Life raft training model and immersion suits for students. For firefighting training, RHF helped to purchase new protective clothing and Padgenite insulating panels to reinforce fire walls within the training facility.

Supporting Career Technical Education at RCC

Funds from Roundhouse for the fall term of 2021 benefitted 40 students in the construction program. Students received required tools for their classes that they could take on to use during their careers after completing their schooling.

Expanding support for Career Technical Education in Oregon

The Roundhouse Foundation has expanded its Career and Technical Education (CTE) grant program, assisting and encouraging community college students pursuing specific study areas.

Lomakatsi Restoration Project develops Tribal Youth

Roundhouse Foundation is honored to support the Tribal Youth Ecological Forestry Training Program that Lomakatsi Restoration Project has developed in collaboration with the Board of Trustees of the Edison Chiloquin Trust Land, the Klamath Tribal Community and the US Forest Service.

Oregon FFA offers youth leadership experiences with community grant program

Roundhouse Foundation is pleased to support the Oregon FFA Foundation by providing funding for a community grant program for high school students to gain real world leadership experiences in philanthropy.

“This program keeps us up to date with the latest technologies, allowing us to train the students with the equipment they will be using on board their vessels and not out-of-date equipment.”

—Eldon Russell, Maritime Science Instructor for Clatsop Community College

Resources

Podcast Episode

Kate Kinder: Community Colleges as Rural Economic Drivers

Community colleges are meeting a growing set of needs in rural spaces: they’re boosting economic development, providing education equity, and they’re training skilled workers. Kate Kinder, executive director at the National Council for Workforce Education, discusses how community colleges reflect and amplify the economies where they’re located with programs designed to support the needs of local industries. They play a critical role in sustaining communities through education efforts that reflect the economies of the regions they serve; but are philanthropic organizations catching on and throwing their weight behind community colleges?

Learn more>

Podcast Episode

Lee Kounovsky: Career Technical Education Supports Communities

In recent decades, we’ve seen a steep drop off of young people going into the trades, but that trend has started to reverse. Lee Kounovsky has played a big role in steering young people in Oregon toward meaningful and lucrative careers in tradework – from construction to electrical work and beyond. He is the Lane County Construction Trades Specialist, working with students at the community college, high school and middle school levels. After the devastating wildfires of 2020, he inspired students—who had lost everything—to rebuild for others through a program called Sheds of Hope. That program has grown into a statewide initiative called Constructing a Brighter Future, impacting close to 4,000 students last year.  These types of programs illuminate the need to reduce barriers to career technical education — for as Lee points out, these students are learning more than job readiness.

Learn more>

FAQs

Why Support Community Colleges?

In order to have a thriving rural economy, residents need access to educational opportunities that match community needs. Community Colleges are place-based and represent the most current and important needs within the region they represent. Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses are available at these regional Colleges and offer an opportunity for community members to enhance their own lives and their respective community, as well as elevating their rural economy.

Many traditional and non-traditional students seek career pathways through connection in their local community colleges. With Oregon’s Promise and other scholarship and grant opportunities, frequently tuition and fees associated with these programs can be greatly reduced – making them accessible to many populations. We recognize there may be additional barriers for students to access these programs despite state, federal and regional financial aid.

What community colleges are eligible?

At this time, participation in this program is by invitation only. Selected community college partners will be contacted directly. Based on total enrollment, community college foundations are eligible for a sliding scale of funds to develop and distribute funds to their students within CTE programs that are mutually agreed upon between community college foundation staff and Roundhouse.

Thank you to our partners!

Strategies

  • Assist and encourage community college students to pursue specific areas of study by reducing financial barriers outside of tuition and fees (e.g., equipment, gear and tools) that can keep students from accessing credentials and skills for jobs in high-demand sectors; we specifically support students in certified, mission-aligned CTE programs that support the economic assets and needs of the local community
  • Support mission-aligned CTE programs outside of community colleges that are providing youth – particularly youth who are not in school and not employed – with career training pathways in trades tied to local workforce needs, and that will support financial independence in rural and Tribal places
  • Encourage the development of and student engagement in innovative CTE programs in emerging areas in the Green Economy, especially those that leverage the unique assets of the local community
  • Identify opportunities to strengthen and expand rural CTE programs that support community risk reduction and adaptability by leveraging climate change and wildfire recovery funds and infusing traditional ecological knowledge (in collaboration with Community Capacity & Disaster Relief)
  • Support STEM/STEAM programming in middle and high school to cultivate creativity, flexibility, experimentation and critical thinking, and, as appropriate, offer opportunities to share in intergenerational experiences
  • Support outreach and bridge programming that introduces, encourages and prepares middle and high school students to pursue technical and trade careers
  • Collaborate with and leverage funds from philanthropy to strategically support CTE throughout rural and Indigenous communities