BINGHAMTON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – Nearly 100 students graduating from BOCES career and technical programs have signed up for jobs right out of school.
Broome-Tioga BOCES held its annual signing day last week at its main campus in the Town of Dickinson.
The students received certificates from the school and then signed letters of intent to work at one of 32 employers that have offered them jobs.
Principal of the Center for Career and Technical Excellence Jeff Franey says the event is modeled after athletic signings.
Franey says that for students who don’t plan to go on to college, or are delaying college, it’s an opportunity to put their skills to work.
“You’re going out and making money instead of spending money. Not to belittle college, I just did it myself. But these kids going out and having jobs and going into what we trained them for and then seeing them out in the community working those jobs, it’s amazing,” he said
Some of the students have already had exposure to the job sites through the school’s co-op program.
That includes Sonny Reece who signed to be a zookeeper at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville.
The graduate of the Animal Science program has been at Animal Adventure since April.
“It gets me prepared for the field I’m going into in college. It gives me a lot of hands-on experience working with the animals. It’s really the career path I was looking to take when I started the Animal Science program.”
Employers came from a variety of industries including manufacturing, medical, heating and cooling, automotive, hair styling, construction, retail and even a cannabis dispensary.