Industry Expert Speakers Series

The Center for New Directions continues to work on projects to support students going into a non-traditional occupation for their gender. The Industry Expert Speakers Series provides industry experts, who are non-traditional by gender in their CTE field, the opportunity to speak with CTE students about their field of work, their career, and education path including experiences being in a non-traditional occupation.

The speaker series also offers students the opportunity to ask questions and network with industry experts. Seeing real world examples of people who are successfully working as experts in careers that are non-traditional for their gender, and having the ability to network with them, increases retention and completion and promotes equitable access to programs.

Speaker presentations will be also be publicized outside of CWI, specifically to local high schools, to encourage the exploration of non-traditional by gender programs of study offered at CWI. A library of recorded speaker presentations will be available for current and prospective students to use as a tool in exploring occupations that are non-traditional for their gender.