USU-Eastern along with Carbon School District our excited to bring a new program that will bring early awareness to middle school students of possible careers in small and large industries that are technology based jobs.

Gary Straquadine, Vice President and Provost explained, “What we’ve done is presented to Workforce Services and the Governors Office of Economic Development a proposal to develop a career pathway specifically, I’m calling it from seventh and eighth grade through graduate school specifically in an area of industrial technology and manufacturing systems, which is unique to our Carbon County industries that we have. We have some great partnerships in mind, starting with the school district through our university and certainly with the support of our county commissioners.” This is another part of the economy that needs to evolve in the area.

“Carbon County School Board members and partners were always open when the university comes with ideas to advance education for their students, which we hope will become our students and of course Utah’s students, but looking at how students need more direction and a pathway, is the term we are using right near, specifically a career pathway,” stated Straquadine. For years technology programs and vocational education was only offered to high school students but with the new Career Pathway program reaching out to students in the middle school will be beneficial in steering students to a worth while career.

“Just last week we submitted what was called a Talent Ready Utah grant. We’ll be in competition with other universities, other applied technology colleges, other industry partnerships throughout Utah but I believe through the strong leadership of our county commissioners that we do have a good place at the table because of what Carbon County’s needs are and how this partnership, this coalition has been developed specifically for this area of southeast Utah,” said Straquadine. Currently, applications for the grant are being reviewed and the outcome should be known by the first part of July. Once the grant is in place the Career Pathway project can begin to help advance education as well as training for the 2018-2019 school year.