THS to offer health industry classes
By Arthur McLean Editor

Career tech education is no longer about cows and cookies. While that may be the outdated idea some people still have of career oriented high school classes, Thomasville High School is moving to shatter that misconception with a new offering; health occupations.

Teachers and administrators saw an opportunity to expand their career offerings next year and sent out a survey to students to guage their interest in new career-oriented classes.

Of those who responded, 78 percent indicated an interest in health-related careers, said Vickie Crowley. Within the health care category, nursing, radiology and physical therapy were the top three in terms of student interest.

With those results in hand, school officials began assessing the feasibility of offering a health occupations course at the school.

"We plan to have courses that allows the students to explore all the fields that interest them," Crowley said. Students will learn about the various fields, shadow professionals while on the job and perform clinical work for credit.

The new class, in pre-registration now; is expected to feed into the health alliance at Alabama Southern Community College and from there, provide a pipeline of highly trained, local staff for area hospitals like Southwest Alabama Medical Center.

The class will be open to juniors and seniors and three classes are planned for next year. The school is looking for a career tech teacher who is also a certified RN, said THS principal Brian Clayton, and the class will be taught under state-approved guidelines for these kinds of courses with state texts.

"This gives our students an early taste of what these careers will be like and gives them an opportunity to discover what they like and dislike," Clayton said.

It will also give THS students a leg up in getting a good paying job in one of the fastest growing industries in Alabama.

"We hope to prepare them for the job market," Clayton said. Crowley added, "we hope to develop relationships with the hospital and other healthcare facilities so that jobs will be available as these students complete their training."

Class size will be limited to 20 students.

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