The concept of local school districts being able to share vocational programs began in 1965 with the school districts of Flat Rock, Gibraltar, and Grosse Ile initiating eight vocational education programs to be utilized jointly. The Huron School District was added in 1967, Airport (Monroe County) in 1968, Woodhaven in 1972, Riverview in 1978, Trenton in 1994, and Southgate in 1995. As the process evolved, new programs were added to meet the expanding student and employment demands.
The group of school districts was referred to as the Downriver Area Vocational Cooperative. Cooperation has been the major element of success, which has enabled the current program’s growth and development. As with any other school districts, these have had experiences with financial difficulties and administrative changes, but historically the vocational programs have always received positive attention as meeting vital educational needs, and the Cooperative’s ability to meet those needs in a “cost effective” manner has been recognized.
During August of 1978, the Downriver Area Vocational Cooperative was approved for Area Center Designation, which provided for a fifteen year contract among participating districts and the capability to function as a single district relative to vocational education operations. At this time, the name was changed to the Downriver Career Vocational Consortium.
Career and technical education has evolved over the years to meet the demand for highly skilled employees and offers students the opportunity to prepare for college and/or a career in high-skill, high-wage career areas. In the fall of 1991, the Consortium’s name was changed to Downriver Career Technical Consortium (DCTC) to more accurately represent the organization.
Under the law, DCTC is defined as a “decentralized area center”, meaning we will operate the same as a career technical area center, but our programs are offered at more than one site. Currently students can choose from more than 25 career and technical education programs that are offered at 13 different locations.
All DCTC career and technical education programs provide articulated college credit with community colleges, colleges and universities. As of September 2015 two programs were added in the area of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). These programs are Information Technology (in partnership with Schoolcraft College) and Mechatronics (in partnership with Henry Ford College and Ford Flat Rock Assembly Plant). Students who complete these programs will receive up to 26 transcripted college credit hours at Schoolcraft College and Henry Ford College.
Since then, dual enrollment program have been added in Cybersecurity, Electrical Engineering Technology, Emergency Medical Technician, Firefighter, HVAC-R, Manufacturing Engineering & CNC Technology. We have also added program in Athletic Training, Civil Engineering, Horticulture and Web Design as CTE classes. For this year, we will begin the process of adding a Drone and Aviation program, along Environmental Science.