CRTC Compass Magazine

  Pre-Apprenticeship Program Helps CRTC Students Connect to Employers and Jumpstart Their Careers For most of April, Construction Trades student Nick White has been traveling to Manchester each Wednesday to spend five hours working at Longchamps Electric as part of a pre-apprenticeship program designed to give him a head start on both a job and a career. In May he’ll begin an 80-hour paid internship that will transition into a registered apprenticeship and employment with Longchamps. “I think this is the best step I could have taken as far as having a future as an electrician,” the Bow High School junior said. “It helps me to both start earning hours toward my electrical apprenticeship and get my foot in the door for a job with Longchamps.” Nick is the first CRTC student to enter the recently launched state high school pre-apprenticeship program, which is managed by ApprenticeshipNH and funded through a three-year federal grant. The program is an attempt to help students get a head st

  It’s Our Commitment to Your Success That Sets Us Apart At the CRTC we are all in on providing our students and staff with the options and opportunities to succeed in school, careers and life. It’s more than a mission statement for us, it’s a pervasive mindset that guides everything we do, and inspires us to continually refine and innovate the way we conduct our day-to-day business.  That’s one reason why CRTC enrollment has grown 36% over the past decade, while regional high school enrollment has dropped by 17%, and why we are able to attract accomplished industry professionals like Chef Adam Parker (see related article in this issue) to teach our Career Pathway programs. Go to our new website (see related article) and read how Computer Engineering senior Marion Bradbury calls her CRTC experience a “game changer,” and how former Health Science student Heather Stiles says that her CRTC education was “the most important career step I could possibly have taken in high school.” Our innov

  April is Admissions Month at CRTC Over the past several weeks CRTC staff has had to make some pretty tough decisions as they’ve sifted through applications to determine the make up September’s Year I classes, and have carefully reviewed each first year student’s SPUR assessments to decide who would be invited back to complete their second year. Year I students and new applicants already should have received notification letters or emails that inform them of their status and provide instructions for next steps. Any student who has not yet received notification should talk to their CRTC teacher or call the CRTC office. Each year we have more qualified students than we have open seats in our programs, so it’s necessary to make some difficult decisions. Some students who are not outright accepted or invited back have been placed on a waitlist for any available openings before the next school year, or have been asked to sign a conditional contract, which outlines a number of steps student

  CRTC Welcomes New Culinary Teacher There’s a new face in the CRTC Culinary program kitchen! After 20 years of training the next generation of professional chefs, Chef Bob McIntosh will be retiring at the end of this school year and will be replaced by a familiar figure to anyone who’s frequented our Chef-to-School nights or Fratello’s Italian Grille in Manchester. Chef Adam Parker will be coming on board in April to work with Chef Mac through the end of the school year to ensure a smooth transition. Chef Parker, who is the former Director of Operations and Corporate Chef for Fratello’s, will take over the program full time in September. “His years of industry experience and creativity, and his inherent nature to teach and help young professionals to grow as chefs will help to keep the Culinary program vibrant and current to industry standards,” said Chef Mac. “His passion for food will also be passed on to our students.” As an industry partner, Chef Parker has been engaging with the

  CRTC Career Communications A Different Kind of English Class for Career-Minded Students An angry customer calls up complaining that the newly installed dimmer switches are making his LED bulbs flicker every time he turns them on. “What kind of electrician are you,” the customer bellows, “you can’t even install light switches correctly!” CRTC Career Communications English teacher Elizabeth York then steps up to the group of three Construction Trades students and asks: “Your customer is not happy - now how do we come up with an equitable solution?” This customer-relations scenario is part of a role playing exercise being conducted in the CRTC Career Communications classroom as a lesson to develop strategies on how to deal with difficult customers. The CRTC’s own high school English class was developed five years ago by Director Steven Rothenberg and longtime English teacher Elizabeth York as a way to combine the career-focused education students get in their CRTC programs with the comm

  Something New Waiting For You at thecrtc.org The newly redesigned CRTC website is up and running, featuring a new format that updates our look and upgrades your online CRTC connection. The content has been revised and streamlined to improve the user experience, and there are lots of new photos and videos featuring our programs and your students. Our main menus have been developed to provide intuitive guidance to the information you’re looking for, and a newly-designed, four-box matrix outlines the four pillars of our value propositions. We’ve also added quick-links to our student, parent and alumni endorsements, who tell you in their own words how the CRTC advantage has impacted their school, career and life experiences. And we’ve added one-click connections to our online publications and social media sites. And that’s just the homepage. So, what are you waiting for? Check out theCRTC.org today, explore our new website and discover (or rediscover) how the Concord region’s premiere

  Goodbye Ms. Kate CRTC Program Coordinator Kate Amrol left the CRTC in April to become the new Workforce Development Coordinator for the NH Auto Dealers Association Education Foundation. Ms. Kate, as she was affectionately called by students, had been with the CRTC for five years, where she took on multiple roles before being promoted to Program Coordinator just as the COVID crisis began last spring. “Kate served us brilliantly for five years as she grew from an administrative assistant to program coordinator.” said CRTC Director Steven Rothenberg. “She was a true Swiss-Army knife, being involved in everything from recruitment to special events to student and school relations.  We will miss her.”   Her work developing work-based learning experiences for CRTC students and making connections with industry and postsecondary partners dovetails nicely with her new duties at the NHADA, Ms. Amrol said.  “I can pick up where the CRTC left off and help students get to the next level after high

  Meet Our Teachers:  Elizabeth York, CRTC Career Communications Five years ago, a longtime Concord High School English teacher was challenged to build a unique kind of English course flexible enough to target the individual CRTC student's career goals, but comprehensive enough to provide all students with relevant, career-ready reading, writing and speaking skills. The program she created is called CRTC Career Communications ... and there isn't another course quite like it in any other NH CTE center. Learn a little more about our CRTC Career Communications English teacher, Elizabeth York, by reading this month’s CRTC Teacher Q&A. How long have you been a Career and Technical Education teacher? I have been an English teacher for 30 years, and I started teaching CRTC English 5 years ago. What industry experience did you bring into the classroom with you? While I am a career educator, our family runs two businesses out of our home: York Building & Remodeling and York Prop