Key Points:
- Kansas high schoolers attend technical colleges free for high-demand jobs.
- USD 259 partners with WSU Tech to equip two training centers.
- Future Ready offers free college credits, latest technology, and pathways for manufacturing and healthcare.
It has been more than a decade since Kansas lawmakers passed legislation allowing high school juniors and seniors to add technical college to their high school class load.
Since then, more and more students have graduated high school with professional certifications or associate’s degrees, ready to step into higher wage positions in a high-demand field.
Last fall, in response to growing demand, Wichita Public Schools increased access to technical training for their students by opening two state-of-the-art technical training centers.
Called the Future Ready Centers, one focuses on manufacturing, the other on healthcare, and they’re part of the Every Student Future Ready initiative adopted by the district in December 2023.
The programs are a partnership between USD 259 and WSU Tech.
The first year of classes at the centers is winding down but they’re bustling with activity. Local manufacturing companies are holding recruitment fairs and Future Ready program leaders are working to sign up next year’s high school juniors and seniors for the fall. year.
“Many of our manufacturing graduates will go to work for Textron or Spirit right here in Wichita, making $23 to $24 a hour straight out of high school,” said Future Ready Centers Principal Eric Shipman. “Our healthcare students are snapped up by local hospitals, nursing homes, and rehab centers.”
Free College Credits
While many students are looking to go straight into the workforce after graduation, others will use their technical skills as a base toward completing higher degrees in fields like engineering, automation programming, aerospace, or medical and other specialty degrees.
But graduates still benefit, even if they go on to college because they can graduate with significant college credit at no cost. Students earn between eight and 12 hours of college credits and staff works to build a plan that is the best fit for each individual student each semester they are in the program.
They are also counseled about the opportunity to earn additional dual or concurrent high school and college credits in required general education classes such as English composition, history or math.
Having technical certifications in high-demand jobs also means a student can get higher pay for the part-time hours they work while finishing that advanced degree.
Shipman said, “The great thing is credits are already paid for. There is zero cost to the students in Future Ready. Transportation to the centers is provided, there are no books to buy or tuition to pay.
“The only requirements are that the student be on track to graduate on time, have no attendance issues and follow their school’s code of conduct.”
The Manufacturing Center
The Manufacturing Center is located just east of the main Wichita North High School campus at 13th and Waco. It is a former Dillons’ supermarket that the district bought when it closed.
It is now equipped with programmable welders and Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machines, 3-D printers and robotics – all of the latest machinery that’s in use in industry.
“Our students graduate with the knowledge and skills they need to go to work in modern manufacturing plants,” Shipman said.
Manufacturing students can choose from three pathways, depending on what their career interests are.
They can choose from aviation, manufacturing production and assembling, or manufacturing maintenance and automation.
With two years of training, they can earn skill certifications and be ready to fill jobs in welding, robotics, sheet metal, composite manufacturing and more.
The Healthcare Center
Students at the Healthcare Center can also choose from three pathways:
Emergency Medical Technician pathway, which earns them an EMT Certification;
pre-nursing, where they can obtain certificates as a nurse aide, Home Health Aide or Certified Medication Aide;
Patient Care Technology, where they can earn certifications as a nurse aide, home health aide, phlebotomy tech, or EKG Tech.
EMT Certification requires the student to pass both written and practical tests administered by the state board, but all the other certification tests are administered by teachers at the Future Ready Center.
The Healthcare Center is located in the WSU Tech South campus on East Harry Street. The district equipped the center with hospital beds, training mannequins and other equipment giving the program participants the benefit of training in a space that looks and operates like the facilities they will work in after graduation.
Funding for renovation and equipment for both centers was paid for through the American Rescue Plan Act.
Program Future
Shipman said Future Ready is working on plans to offer experience for students inside hospitals at Wesley, Ascension Via Christi, and Kansas Heart Hospital in the near future
There are currently 125 students in healthcare classes and 108 in manufacturing. Next fall, Shipman expects the numbers to grow.
“I think we’ll be at 250 in healthcare. That’s close to capacity,” he said. “I’m expecting about 200 in manufacturing.”
High schoolers who will be juniors or seniors in the fall can sign up for Future Ready Centers online.
Every Student Future Ready
The expansive USD 259 Every Student Future Ready Program is a five-year initiative, designed to positively impact student outcomes in three key areas: Increasing graduation rates, improving ACT scores, increasing math proficiency by 8th grade and increasing reading proficiency by 3rd grade.
As part of the program, a variety of enhanced reading interventions are being undertaken from preschool through 3rd grade that involve encouraging reading readiness and skills. In elementary school, programs are being implemented to help students stay on track as math becomes more challenging.
A number of studies have shown that students who are proficient in reading by 3rd grade and in math by 8th grade are more likely to have regular attendance, graduate and perform better on standardized tests.
Damien Garcia Velazquez graduates from North High this spring. He will also graduate from the Future Ready Manufacturing Center and plans a summer internship at Textron Aviation. 
Xavion Lewis works on programming his “Skill Boss” machine. He is a senior at North High and plans a career in aviation manufacturing. 
Sarah Braden is on the manufacturing production and assembly pathway at the Future Ready Manufacturing Center. She is a student at North High and says she looks forward to graduating high school with 70 hours of college credits already earned. 
Arleth Rios Aviles administers eye drops to Daisy Lumbreras in the Future Ready Healthcare Center. Both are students in the Certified Nursing Assistant program and are North High students. 
Money from an ARPA Grant enabled the purchase of state-of-the art equipment for the USD 259-WSU Tech Future Ready Training Centers. For healthcare students that means being able to learn how to operate a real hospital bed and practice their skills on lifelike mannequins.
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