Students from Red Deer Catholic middle schools made the trip to Notre Dame High School this week to explore future career possibilities.

Over the course of two days’ students were given the opportunity to try a trade and experience courses in Career and Technology Studies.

"When we look at students who come into high school, sometimes there’s a lot of choices for them to make and it’s hard for them to make informed choices if they don’t know what these programs look like,” Tracey Millar, head of the CTS department said.

“We’re trying to reduce the amount of stress that’s on students when they are making these types of transitions.”

Out of the 22 different options, the grade nines were able to choose two on the list which included cosmetology, food studies, construction technology and fabrication among others.

Within the next couple of months, the middle school students will have to have to decide what programming is interesting to them and what paths they want to take in high school. The goal Millar said is to try and help students find what they’re passionate about.  

“We want kids to find out what it is that they want to do and want to learn.”

“It’s not so much teacher driven anymore where we’re saying this is curriculum and this is what you have to do. We’re asking students what do you want to know about this? What do you want to learn? What’s important?”  

With around 30 per cent of students expected to enroll in degree programs, that leaves the other 70 per cent to find interests in the CTS program, explained Millar.

“The other 70 per cent, it doesn’t mean that these students won’t go on to post-secondary institution, it just means they won’t be going into a degreed program in University.”

“If you’re going into post-secondary you have to identify what areas of interest you have. There are so many highly qualified positions available for people today and the training that’s required, we can give them such a great start here in high school.”

Over the two days, each session involved a brief overview including career path opportunities, but more importantly Millar said the students had the opportunity to jump right in and get their hands dirty.