The three D’s — dark, dirty and dangerous — is how Cullman County Schools’ Superintendent Shane Barnette said that career tech facilities have typically been stereotyped in the past during October’s community meeting at Parkside Elementary. But after recent remodels and overhauls to many of the departments at the Cullman Area Technology Academy (CATA), school officials are changing that stereotype and providing students with the skills that will benefit them in life and in the workforce.

“If you went to school in Cullman County within the last 30 or 40 years or so and you visited the career center, then you know they have always had a stereotype. It’s almost like if you can’t do this [referring to succeeding in a traditional classroom setting], well then you just go to the career center. Well, it’s not that way anymore,” Barnette said.

After adding several new programs and recruiting more heavily during the last year, the center has experienced more than a 50 percent increase in students attending the campus, growing from just fewer than 400 in 2021 to the 632 current students.

These students, from both the Cullman County and Cullman City school districts, enroll in courses provided at the CATA campus that will serve as a foundational education in the skills that they will use in their particular career of interest — from welding and mechanics to nursing and cosmetology — instead of choosing elective courses at their respective campuses.

“They do their core classes, their math, science, English and history, in their own schools, but then they come here and attend classes based on what their career choices are,” said first year of CATA Director and Principal Dr. Susan Patrick.

Through these programs, students are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to pass certification tests upon graduating that will allow them to enter the workforce after graduation. This allows them the choice between immediately building a career for themselves or a means to provide for themselves while attending college.

“The kids get a credential in their career field, which means they have to pass a test. So, we have like NCCER, ASE which is your auto-tech and your collision repair, Servsafe which is your culinary arts, CPR and Certified Nursing Assistant which is your health sciences, Ready to Work Microsoft Office which is for business. So they can leave here with a credential which will allow them to go to work,” Patrick said.

CATA Assistant Principal Haynes Riddle said that not only is it important to teach students about their careers inside of a classroom, but it’s crucial they provide students with opportunities to gain real-world experience. They have been able to do this by renovating several of the departments into a much more realistic environment — the cosmetology department was recently overhauled and now resembles an up-scale salon, while the nursing department resembles a true-to-life emergency room.

“We’ve remodeled it to look very much like a doctor’s office and an ER. Our students can go right out there and have a surgical room pretty much like you’d see at Cullman Regional Medical Center. It’s pretty impressive,” Barnette said.

Riddle also works diligently to find opportunities outside of the classroom for CATA students.

“I’m totally convinced that on-the-job training and learning is one of the best types of education for a student,” Riddle said. “We’re all about creating career awareness here, but also the career observation portion of a career is kind of what I do. And so, my job is to provide opportunities for internships and apprenticeships throughout Cullman County. Right now, I have 240 students in Cullman County that are actively participating in apprenticeships.” 

Riddle said that these students are currently working in the shops that repair the diesel trucks that deliver our food to the grocery stores, repairing vehicles that may have been in an accident in the area and even serving food to  drive-through patrons, making it entirely possible that many members of the community have interacted and benefitted from their services already.

One thing Riddle knows from first hand experience, is that these internships not only allow for students to gain a better understanding of their career choices, but gives them the opportunity to learn if they actually want to continue to pursue that career.

“I’m a perfect example of that. When I graduated high school I was going to be a nurse. I worked as a CNA at the hospital, and after about two weeks of that I was ready to quit,” Riddle said.

Most recently, CATA has partnered with the Cullman Electric Cooperative to offer a utility lineman program and will soon be adding a fiber optics program to their curriculum. Future programs currently being developed are a cyber-security department as well as a teacher education program that will serve as a sort of symbiotic partnership between students and the school system by allowing juniors and seniors who have completed the first two years of the program to join the districts cooperative and work part-time within their schools. 

As for the “three D’s,” Barnette said that they are no more, at least not at CATA.

“We want everyone to know that you can go to the career center and you can learn a trade that will allow you to make really good money and make a good living for you and your family,” he said.