business backgrounder | education & workforce
Innovation and Imagination – Two Words
Redefining Education
As the demand for a high-tech workforce grows, innovative
Spokane Valley Tech high school takes learning beyond the book
to propel students into real-world jobs, college and the trades.
Bobbi Cussins
Tackling one of the biggest issues for employers — narrowing the growing skills gap in science, technology, engineering and
math, or STEM, graduates — Spokane Valley Tech high school takes a hands-on approach to learning that is both rigorous
and engaging. The goal is to entice students into jobs and degrees that fit the needs of today’s high-tech and manufacturing
employers.
A refashioned Rite Aid store in Spokane Valley is helping to close Washington’s growing skills gap, one student at a time.
Spokane Valley Tech (SVT), which opened in 2014, is an innovative, hands-on public high school with a focus of graduating
students who are career and college ready in high-demand science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
Funding for the school comes from a combination of state and private sources. The Legislature approved $1.5 million for the
school, and it also relies on grants from companies like aerospace giant The Boeing Company and others.
Unlike a traditional public high school, SVT embraces an open classroom concept that, together with the group workspace
design, is meant to encourage student collaboration, inventive
thinking and problem solving.
These are the “necessary building blocks” when problems are
edlinesites.net/pages/spokane_valley_tech
complex and require multiple skill sets to solve, said Mark Bitz,
at a glance
Part of the Spokane Valley public school system, Spokane Valley
Tech high school opened in 2014 to give students an alternative
learning environment.
Spokane Valley Tech focuses on graduating students who are
career and college ready in high-demand science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM) fields.
Areas of study include aerospace and advanced manufacturing,
sports medicine, biomedical sciences, engineering, as well as
computer science and app development.
Spokane-based Avista Utilities is offering a grant to the school to
start an energy class as part of growing the future workforce.
Businesses can help by offering students at Spokane Valley Tech
internships in their fields of expertise. They can reach the school
at 509.228.5600.
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