West Shore Career Technical District

The West Shore Career-Technical District offers the programs listed on this website to students of the Bay Village, Lakewood, Rocky River, Westlake and FSO school districts. Our Career-Technical Education programs have consistently received high marks on its report card and is recognized as one of the finest in the state. Many of our graduates continue their education at two or four-year colleges while others are employed upon graduation.

Often talented students overlook a career technical program during their high school years because they believe that, since they are planning to go to college, they need to be on an exclusively “college prep” academic track. While this may have been true a generation ago, it is no longer true today. Many college prep students have found rigorous career tech programs actually enhance their college preparation rather than compete with it. West Shore students earn college credit to help save time and money as well. These are students who are typically more focused than their peers because they

• Possess a career direction and a vision of their lives beyond just today

• Have planned with their counselors how to fit academics and career tech into four years of high school

• Have developed good time management skills

• Possess the social and emotional maturity that allows them to take a risk on a new experience

For example, students who think they may want to study business, accounting, finance, marketing or management in college may want to consider one of the programs in the Business section to get a head start on what will be taught in college. This is true, as well, for students interested in a medical, teaching or engineering career~ think about Health Careers, Sports and Exercise Science, Early Childhood Education, Electronic Engineering or Pre-engineering. Is technology your passion? Then consider something in Media Art and Design or Networking. Culinary, Automotive, and Construction provide even more opportunities to combine college and career tech. Theatre Arts is perfect for a student interested in taking their theater passion to the next level. Look at the possibilities in a West Shore Career-Technical program and dare to dream what you could do.

Employers and college admissions officers like career technical graduates because they know they have had hands-on training and real-world experience in their chosen field of interest. Learning about something is not the same as learning how to do something. Career-technical programs at West Shore emphasize both. Students graduate from our one or two-year programs with documented evidence of their academic knowledge, technical skills and experience that will take them to the next step of their education as well as to entry level skilled employment. In addition, many of our programs offer the opportunity for students to obtain industry credentials as a result of their mastery of the topics studied. Please visit our website: http://www.lakewoodcityschools.org/westshore for specific program information.