Regional Career and Technical Education Study Final Report

The Western Virginia Workforce Development Board is pleased to release the final report from the Regional Career and Technical Education Study that was conducted over the past several months. This final report would not have been possible without the incredible partnership between the Board, the public schools systems in the Counties of Alleghany, Botetourt, Craig, Franklin and Roanoke and the Cities of Covington, Roanoke and Salem, Virginia Western Community College, Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, and the assistance of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission. A special thanks goes to Shaffer Evaluation Group, who spearheaded and conducted the analysis and evaluation, as well as developed the final report and recommendations for the region.

This report represents the hard work that the public school systems and community colleges put in each day to further expand, improve, and provide career and technical education opportunities to meet the current and future workforce needs of businesses in the region. It outlines all of the great work that is already occurring and provides valuable information on opportunities for growth and expansion of programs to meet regional workforce gaps. While this report is just being released, work is already beginning on the next steps of the project. This includes a Regional CTE Collaboration that is being convened by the Western Virginia Workforce Development Board, that will take the recommendations in the report and evaluate and prioritize those options that are feasible in the region in the short term and long term. This Collaboration will include members of the Western Virginia Workforce Development Board, representation from each of the eight (8) public school systems in the Roanoke Valley and Alleghany Highlands, members of the business community, and more.

If you have any further questions regarding this report, please feel free to contact Morgan Romeo, Executive Director of the Western Virginia Workforce Development Board, by email at mromeo@vcwblueridge.com or by phone at (540) 562-8442. We look forward to the next steps in this project to making CTE programming an even larger priority for the region.