SAPPINGTON — Allysen Dillion wanted to make the experience as real as possible. She sat on the fake medical bed, took off her shoes, put on non-slip socks and slid under the bed’s starchy white sheets.
Her two classmates, Jax Guffey and Sierra Dolezal, approached Dillion with the demeanor of real-life medical professionals. They don’t work for a nursing home or hospital yet, but are learning how at Lindbergh High School.
Pretending Dillion was a nursing home resident who needed help getting out of bed, Guffey and Dolezal lifted her by her arms and lowered her into a wheelchair. As they pushed her toward the door, Dolezal cracked, “And we’re off to bingo!”
The move, called a “two-person patient transfer,” is one of many skills a small group of Lindbergh High School students are learning as part of the school’s new certified nursing assistant program.
Lindbergh launched the program this year in response to rising demand for nursing assistant training. It is one of a number of ways local schools are addressing the rising demand for career and technical education.
In the past, Lindbergh students who wanted the nursing assistant training applied to Special School District’s South Technical High School.
South Tech’s program, however, has seen steep demand in recent years. Out of an average 145 applications a year, only 45 students are accepted, Jennifer Henry, spokesperson for the Special School District, confirmed in an email. More than half of the Lindbergh students who applied were denied a spot there over the past three years.
Lindbergh High School junior Christine Raineri was waitlisted for South Tech, but chose her home school’s program instead.
“I always look forward to going to this class in the morning,” Raineri said.
Career and technical education programs through St. Louis Community College, Ranken Technical School and the Special School District of St. Louis County have been around for years. Many schools in the St. Louis area have started to invest in their own offerings as demand goes up.
St. Dominic High School in St. Charles County, for example, launched a building trades program for carpentry, HVAC, pipefitting and more this school year. Ferguson-Florissant School District has six career education programs and Gateway STEM High School in St. Louis city has 13, from marketing to robotics.
Lindbergh High School also has aviation and emergency medical technician programs to prepare students for certification exams.
The rising popularity of career and technical education coincides with shifting views on the value of higher education.
Surveys, including one from Pew Research Center in 2024, show far fewer Americans believe the cost of college is “worth it” or “very important” compared to a decade ago.
Enrollment at four-year colleges has risen but remains below pre-pandemic levels, while public two-year colleges focused on trade skills are growing much faster, data from the National Student Clearinghouse shows.
Roger Barnes, coordinator of career education for the state Department of Secondary and Elementary Education, said more students are skipping the traditional college route as strong job markets in the trades make it possible to earn good salaries with no debt.
“The job market’s there. The pay is there,” Barnes said.
Lindbergh’s new nursing assistant program was funded through a $400,000 grant created by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to support career technical education in areas where opportunity was limited.
The program has one instructor and will admit up to 15 students per year. Juniors will attend the two-hour class at Lindbergh’s new nursing assistant facilities, while seniors will go to on-site training at Bethesda health facilities or the Friendship Village retirement community.
“The program itself responds to both workforce need and the need for beginning nurses,” said Jaime Cavato, executive director of secondary education for Lindbergh.
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Monica Obradovic | Post-Dispatch
Education reporter
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