For over 30 years, the East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) has been Arizona’s go-to school for workforce development. As the state’s first Career Technical Education District, EVIT led the way in creating CTE programs that prepare students for professional certifications and jobs right out of high school. With two out of three students going on to college, EVIT also proved to be not only an alternative to college, but a springboard for students to continue their training at the post-secondary level. Then after the addition of programs for adults, EVIT became a school where adult students could upgrade their skills and certifications or start a new career. Thanks to legislation passed last spring, EVIT will be able to enhance its post-secondary programs further by offering associate degrees in high-demand fields starting in 2023-24.
All of this and everything we do at EVIT is intended to change lives by loving our students and serving our community.
That’s why last year, we added a program that allows foster care youth to take an EVIT CTE program while they finish their GED. In the spring, the Arizona Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey approved a $10 million allocation in the state budget for EVIT to build a residential center for foster youth on our Main Campus to help those students transition out of foster care and into life as independent adults. As part of this, EVIT is partnering with Heritage Academy to open a charter high school at the EVIT Main Campus in 2023-24. Foster care youth will be given preferential placement in the school so they can finish high school, take a career training program and receive support services all in one location.
EVIT would not be able to touch so many lives without the ongoing support and involvement of Arizona business and industry. From serving on our program advisory councils to supporting CTE at the Arizona Legislature, industry leaders have helped us create quality career training opportunities for students and a steady pipeline of workers for them.
For example, Adelante Healthcare operates a clinic on the EVIT Main Campus just across the parking lot from our School of Health Sciences where students are training to be nursing assistants, medical assistants, dental assistants and more. Health professionals from Adelante serve on the advisory councils for those programs to ensure the students will meet their needs. The students have the opportunity to gain experience at the clinic, and after they complete their training, many are often hired by Adelante.
Representatives from nearly every auto dealership in the Valley serve on our advisory councils for our automotive programs, providing job shadowing opportunities and internships. As a result, EVIT has been recognized as providing more internships leading to jobs than any other high school automotive program in the nation.
EVIT’s enrollment has been growing steadily, with over 5,000 students at our central campuses this year. A $44 million expansion of our Power Campus in the booming southeast Valley is nearly complete. But we want to make sure we are growing in the right way. So the EVIT Governing Board has begun discussions about the future of EVIT. Should we build more central campuses, and if so, where? Do we continue to offer all of the programs we offer now or are there other programs we should consider?
We want to meet the needs of our market of high school students and adults, but we also want to be mindful of the needs of business and industry. To that end, I would like to invite business and industry leaders to join us in these discussions as we develop a plan for growing EVIT in the future.
If you’re interested, please contact me at cwilson@evit.com. Together, we can change lives and make sure that EVIT continues to be the driver of workforce development in the East Valley and Arizona.
Dr. Chad Wilson is superintendent of the East Valley Institute of Technology, a public Career and Technical Education District (CTED) offering career training programs for high school students and adults at two central campuses in Mesa and a branch campus at Apache Junction High School.
