Gov. Jack Markell addresses Sussex Tech Advisory Board meeting

Sussex Technical School District hosted its annual Schoolwide Advisory Dinner and Meeting Oct. 21. Approximately 350 members, including the local business community, volunteered their time and expertise to advise the district about current educational needs in their particular business or industry.

Sussex Tech uses this information to develop its career-technical education curriculum, and address equipment and facility needs so students are trained with up-to-date industry knowledge, skills and equipment.

Advisory members help ensure that Sussex Technical School District students are career and college ready. This allows them the opportunity to be prepared with certification in hand for entry-level positions in business and industry while also allowing them to further their education to meet not only today’s but tomorrow’s business and industry standards in preparation for competition in a global market.

Markell said, “By 2025, something like 65 percent of the jobs in Delaware are going to require education beyond high school ... I think that the skills that are developed at our Career and Technical Education schools are so incredibly important because they really provide the foundation for what these young people are going to need when they get in the workforce.”

Markell encourages even greater commitment from business and industry. He thanked the advisory members for their contribution to ensure the educational success of the students.

He closed by saying, “I have no doubt when other schools across the state and the country understand the kind of model that you have created here and this partnership between the schools and the local business community, it is something that others will follow.”

Excerpts from Markell's speech can be found on video at www.sussexvt.k12.de.us.