Supporting Career & Technical Education at PVMHS

On Monday August 16th, 2021, members from our team were invited to Peabody Veterans Memorial High School (PVMHS) to take part in a special visit by Massachusetts Governor, Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor, Karyn Polito.  The Career & Technical Education Program at PVMHS received significant grant funding last year as part of the Skills Capital Grant Program. The Skills Capital Grant Program was created by Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito to help high schools, colleges and other educational institutions invest in the most up-to-date training equipment and technologies for students.

PVMHS received $175,000 to be used for their Electronics and Culinary Arts programs. The funding will be used for the Culinary Art program to modernize the kitchen by purchasing a chef refrigerator, proof boxes and gas stoves. The Electronics program will utilize the funding to upgrade their electronics labs by purchasing fiber optic equipment, robotics arms, hot air soldering stations, drone kits and 3D printers.

During the event, Governor Baker discussed how programs like the Career & Technical Education at PVMHS are imperative to the growth of our students in order to keep them up to date with new and emerging jobs and skills. Baker also discussed the importance of the local business community and how they can support our students by offering internships or any other resource they can to help guide and sharpen their skills.

For several years, our team has worked alongside Electronics Program Instructor, Dale Larocque, as he creates a robotic and droning course for the students at PVMHS. Dale’s goal is to provide students with a foundational course in robotics and droning to help prepare them for a career within these fields. Our team helped Dale in selecting which drones would be most beneficial for the students as they begin to learn about droning and robotics.  Dale took our recommendations and purchased the drones, utilizing the funding provided by the Skills Capital Grant program.

Our team is extremely excited to see the PVMHS Electronics program take flight! Dale and his students gave us a tour of their Electronics Lab and we could feel the excitement from both Dale and his students as they showed us their new drone fleet. Check out pictures below from the event!

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