ENCSD Occupational Course of Study Program

The Occupational Course of Study (OCS) at ENCSD is now into its sixth year of operation.
Like many schools in North Carolina our 1st class OCS students graduated in 2004.

We are very proud of the fact that we had a 100% rate of course completion and
graduation with our first graduating OCS class. 100% is a difficult benchmark to
maintain, but our students seek to rise to the high standards set in our Occupational
Course of Study program.

Academic goals in Math, English, Science, and Social Studies as related to the
workplace must be met as well as a minimum of 900 hours of work training and
employment. 360 hours of required employment during the students’ senior
year indicates work training has been successful in bringing about the
transformation from trainee to employee. This is one of the great things about
the OCS Program. Employablility skills are realized through demonstration prior
to graduation and that is vital to having a seamless transition process for our
students.

Occupational Course of Study (OCS) is a positive program. In order for education
to work it must be relative. We strive hard here at ENCSD to provide a Career
Technical Education and OCS program that is relative to workplace expectations.
Realism in the workplace means that activities and plans sometimes do not evolve
as anticipated. Students’ train, study, work and practice only to find that at times
they have to do things multiple times to attain the intended goal. A job is
complete when it is complete and correct. We want our students to know
that a work training hour requirement is met through successful hours and not
simply being in place. We can learn through observation but we know learning
has taken place when it is applied, demonstrated or exhibited in the workplace.

Our community training sites and employment sites are
vital to our programs. So vital in fact that operation without these willing
community businesses would remove that important element, realistic training.
It is important in life long learning to teach the student how to accomplish a
task instead of doing the task for them. However when it comes to application
and demonstration, the student must also have a place to accomplish this task.
Without a place to accomplish the task how would the student demonstrate,
exhibit or apply these new skills. Through demonstration and application
of newly attained skills, the skill level increases with time and new skills are also
obtained. Therefore our 17-20 community partners are very important to
our students’ success.

The Career Technical Education program at ENCSD currently offers
the following courses; Welding, Construction Tech, Clothing Design (sewing),
Graphic Arts/ Printing, Career Exploration, Career Management, Auto Tech I,
Food and Nutrition, Culinary Arts/ Food Services and Computer Courses. We
adjust course offerings to maintain alignment with students needs. The courses
of studies such as Career, College Tech Prep and OCS require that students
earn a minimal of 4 credits in the CTE field of studies.

During the summer of 2005 we began what we hope will be an annual
Career Technical Summer Institute. It is open to High School students in the
53 counties we currently serve across Eastern North Carolina . High School
students here at ENCSD are encouraged to attend the institute to expand
their horizons through shared learning with public school students also
identified as Hearing Impaired. The program was a success with new
relationships developed and learning taking place everyday. We offered
“mini” skill developing and career exploration courses all week long.
Through Valpar and other evaluation tools we were able to share
information with public school staff and parents that we hope was
helpful towards edcuating these students. Information about this
years institute is avaiable by contacting ENCSD.