drawing expertise, the message was clear: students need different skills for tomorrow’s jobs.“One of the construction companies was here talking about how with AI, they are having to hire less and less people with expertise in CAD drawings for projects. And it is more on the students understanding the coding and how to leverage the new technologies in the space,” Kline explains. This feedback drives North Polk’s Career and Technical Education advisory committee, which meets annually to bridge the gap between classroom learning and workplace reality. “We bring in [the advisory council] annually in April to just have that basic conversation of what is happening in your area of work that we can help start teaching and educating and molding students to be able to be successful when they leave us,” Kline says.The district has developed a quality pre-apprenticeship program in construction and was selected as a semifinalist for the CHIPS challenge, the only district in the state and just 1 of 36 nationwide. However, since then, the U.S. Department of Education has announced the early termination of the CTE CHIPS Challenge. 389 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 09 NORTH POLK COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
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