Spotlight


More students are graduating high school than ever before

Transcript

Student: Approaching graduation last year, I didn't know what I was going to do.
A lot of things outside of school affected my school work. I missed a lot of time in class. It's difficult focussing when you're thinking about things that you have to do when you get home. And I saw this program as an opportunity and I went with it.

Teacher to class: Okay, we're going to do these the rest of the week... We're going to give you three or four examples each day....

Student: Dual credit program. I can earn a credit in high school and I can earn a college credit in the same class.

Teacher to class: Any problems with that?

Minister Wynne: Many of these are kids who aren't even thinking about finishing high school. What we've done with these programs is we've provided opportunities for students like Dave to succeed and have a skill set at the end of high school.

Teacher to a student: Good job. Looks good.

Student: We start out in the morning learning about footings, foundations, Pythagorean theorem – basic construction stuff. After that, we go out and we start working on our own projects.

Instructor: They are learning hands on every aspect of residential construction. This is one of our independent projects. It's a Grade 12 students' 10' X 20' shed. The program is a high skills major. This is what employers are looking for.

Teacher: This is our eco building. We did this with the high skills majors' students.

Teacher: When I first met Dave, he had a lot going on and I just saw it right away – this guy needed a focus of something and he took tech classes and sure enough he got involved of something of interest to him. It can be anything from a garden swing to a cedar strip canoe. It's a challenge. It really gives them a sense of satisfaction and their self-esteem is, it goes right through the roof when they get this thing accomplished.

Minister: Since 2003, 36,000 more kids have graduated than would have graduated had we stayed with the same programs. It's a huge success story.

Student: The dual credit – that was big for me because if I didn't do that, I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't be where I'm going today. I can potentially be a licensed carpenter by the time I'm 21. If I didn't have this program, I probably would never become a licensed carpenter. Nobody is a licensed carpenter by the time they're 21.