Academic & Vocational Training Program.

Academic & Vocational Training Program

The curriculum components of the Hopedale Academic & Vocational Training Program provide services to students with a wide variety of learning needs.  It includes Literacy, Numeracy, Language Arts, Communication Skills, Science and Social Studies.  This program is designed for students who demonstrate the ability to work within the upper grade levels of the mainstream primary curriculum.

As the subject matter of this unit closely resembles regular education, selected students may matriculate to public or private schools.  Others may require a curriculum that sustains an emphasis on the mastery of basic math and reading skills with a focus on practical/functional life applications.

The program provides supplemental reading instruction on an individual basis to increase students’ skills in the following areas:

• Vocabulary
• Word Analysis
• Comprehension
• Spelling
• Written expression

A comprehensive career education component is integrated into the Academic & Vocational Training Program.  The career education component makes use of school and community based facilities to expose students to specific vocational/career opportunities.  These skills are taught through classroom instruction and actual “hands-on” experience.  Depending on the students’ aptitude, field placement in the business community is also possible.

Hopedale Centre partners with numerous businesses throughout the community providing access to a variety of worksites for student apprenticeship.Theseapprenticeships give studentsan opportunity to engage in a range of real life experiences within the community as part of their preparation for future vocational and adult living activities. This School –to -Work Program allows students to match their abilities and interest with community job- training placements leading eventually to productive futures.

Through these community job-training sites, Hopedale students acquire pragmatic educational and vocational skills, positive work attitudes, and constructive workplace behaviors to help ensure their successful transition from school to adult life.