During the week of Career and Technical Education, Huntley Project High School is visited by Governor Greg Gianforte

Billings, Montana – Governor Greg Gianforte visited the state capitol on Thursday with Montana state Representative Greg Oblander as Career and Technical Education Week came to an end.

The funding for Career and Technology Student Organizations was tripled by House Bill 382—sponsored by Oblander—which Governor Gianforte signed into law during the previous session.
The majority of students participating in CTE classes have family members employed in the agricultural or technical sectors of the economy. Students can consider alternatives to college after high school because C TE programs incorporate technical training into a high school classroom environment.

There are 30 million occupations in the US that pay at least $55,000 annually and don’t require a bachelor’s degree, according to the Department of Education.

Senior at HPHS Tanner Ttott is enrolled in the CTE program; according to him, you can learn anything from welding to animal health.

Even though his family is deeply engaged in the agriculture sector, he stated that he thinks the program can lead many other students who are interested in technical careers in new directions.

“Not everybody can be an engineer or a lawyer and we need different people to run this whole country smoothly, and i think it’s important to introduce them to that in high school because if you just teach college-based material they’ll never know if they like the ag industry. If you don’t get them introduced, they’ll never know that want to pursue that career path. If we start that in high school and get more people on the path they truly want to pursue in life and not just what everyone tells me, they should do,” said Stott.

The CTE class’s instructor, Logan Kotar, stated that many employees would be retiring in the coming years, so they are making every effort to ensure that some of the brightest students will be graduating from high school and filling those positions.

“It’s a lot more than just swinging the hammer, you have to know your way around a computer, be safe in the industry, show up on time, and just be on top of your game, and that is what we are hoping to do here,” said Kotar.

Following his visit with the professors and students, Governor Gianforte expressed his admiration for the work the CTE program can achieve with the kids as the industry progresses.

“Ag is our number one industry in the state and it’s getting more complicated. The complexity of the equipment, the science associated with different varietals, and the technology involved in marketing directly to consumers. All of those things are changing the face of ag and that’s why I’m so impressed with what they are doing here in the classroom to help produce our farmers of the future.”

According to the American Educational Research Association, “for each CTE course completed during the senior year, a student was 2.1 percent more likely to graduate on time and 1.8 percent less likely to drop out.”