CTech welcomes 60 students looking for technical and career skills

Guam's fourth and newest charter school looks forward to making a difference for the next generation by educating future leaders about career and technical skills.

Career Tech High Academy Charter School kicked off its second school year this morning at its Hagat campus.

Career Tech High Academy Charter School or CTech's mission is to foster community-centered, culturally-rooted identity; to equip the island's next skilled workforce and to build a forum for upcoming leaders of Guam and the region.

We caught up with the newly appointed Principal Dr. Juan Flores who said that the school was developed to have students focus on career and technical education.

"To prepare students for certification in job areas, provide them with opportunities so they can get a job right after high school or go to college if they decide but to have that option. So if a student goes through and takes courses in tech that student will have some kind of national certification."

With Guam's skilled labor shortage, Flores says he hopes equipping future leaders through this learning institution will address that issue.

"So there is a need for engineering technicians right the folks who go out and help with surveying," he said. "What are going to do to get students ready for that? Or environmental technicians to work with companies that are doing environmental studies. Those are some of the areas that we might work on."

The Home of the Siheks currently has 60 students enrolled so far for the year with the capacity of a hundred students.
On the first day of classes, Flores shares that a mask mandate is in place as one of their many COVID-19 safety measures.

"The first thing is obviously that when everybody checks in, they check-in and we know that they are here," he said. "We take their temperature, they sanitize. These chairs are a third of what we can fit in here. The chairs are spread out in the classrooms so we can make sure we are practicing social distancing. We're gonna encourage the students to wash their hands often, use sanitizers all the time and wear a mask. Everybody will wear a mask all day."

Flores noted that 100% of the school's faculty and staff are fully vaccinated against the virus.

For more information, visit their website at careertechguam.org.