The Lancaster County Career & Technology Center is closing its high school Medical Administrative Assistant, Event Planning and Tourism Services Management, and Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Technician Programs at the end of this school year. The CTC’s Joint Operating Committee approved this action at its February board meeting.
The LCCTC serves the needs of 16 sending school districts and Lancaster County. To serve those needs, we must regularly review our programs and maintain our primary function – providing relevant career and technical education to Lancaster County students. Closure of these programs allows the LCCTC expand and innovate in other ways, creating more opportunity to serve our community and educate students in high priority occupations.
Innovation for In-Demand Careers
Ending our Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation program allows us to launch a new Welding pilot program. This program will optimize our available space and instructional capacity at the Willow Street campus to expand the Welding program to juniors and sophomores over a number of years. This innovative program will also increase the overall number of seats available in the Welding program. Welding is one of the LCCTC’s most in-demand classes.
Expanding High Priority Occupation Programs
Eliminating the Medical Administrative Assistant and Event Planning and Tourism Services Management programs will let the CTC expand capacity in its existing Introduction to Health Careers and Medical Assistant programs. These two programs are consistently filled and are considered high priority occupation (HPO) programs. The PA Center for Workforce Information & Analysis generates HPO lists for regions throughout the state. HPO lists help communities identify in-demand occupations with higher skill needs, direct workforce and educational efforts, and are most likely to offer family-sustaining wages.
Data-Driven Decisions
“The Lancaster County CTC recognizes that decisions like these impact lives and we do not make them without compelling reason,” said Dr. Stuart Savin, LCCTC Administrative Director. “Decisions affecting programs should never be made without considering the impact to students, staff, and the community. We make these difficult decisions after the careful gathering and evaluation of data from several years past to the present.”
These actions were supported by the LCCTC Administration, the CTC’s Professional Advisory Committee comprised of superintendents from the sending school districts, and the General Advisory Committee, comprised of local industry representatives. LCCTC administration and the JOC chose to discontinue the Event Planning & Tourism Services Management and Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Technician Programs because they have experienced low student interest and declining student enrollments for a number of years.
“Any effective institution must change over time,” said Administrative Director, Dr. Stuart Savin. “The LCCTC is not the same institution it was when it was founded over 50 years ago. We have grown. We have improved. We have evolved. And we will continue to do so,” he said.
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