PILOT MOUNTAIN — Students in Surry County’s high schools are spending this week learning about different career paths available to them through the Career and Technical Education program.

As part of CTE Week, East Surry, North Surry and Surry Central high schools have been hosting two speakers each day to talk about career areas relating to agriculture, tourism and hospitality, construction and a number of other subjects.

The students have found the week to be beneficial as they were able to see the list of speakers prior to the event and choose to attend sessions they found interesting. They have used the week to learn about different fields and how to prepare to enter the workforce.

Mallory Belcher attended a session put on by a Kings College representative about how to interview for a job and what fields may have openings in the future.

“I think she did a good job. The handouts she had with the job forecasts were neat,” said Belcher. “I haven’t had a job so I didn’t really know how to do an interview.”

“I went to the Johnson Wales one and they talked mainly about the school’s culinary stuff. It was very interesting,” said Jorge Padron.

At East Surry on Wednesday morning, Bryan Cave, director of the Surry County Cooperative Extension, spoke to students about agriculture. He told students about the fact that agriculture is North Carolina’s No. 1 industry and employer. It contributed $461 million to Surry County’s economy in 2006.

“The average item on the grocery shelf has gone 1,500 miles. If we can grow our food here, we can lessen our carbon footprint,” said Cave.

He stressed the importance of agriculture and the fact that the average age of farmers is 56-years old. He talked about the future of agriculture and how farming can still be a sustainable career.

“I think there’s a hug opportunity in part-time farming,” he said. “It has got to become an attractive career for your age group.”

The students were interested in what he had to say and learned about some agricultural programs including the Good Agricultural Practices program which teaches people how to better their farms and products through a grading system and the new Pilot Mountain Pride program the Cooperative Extension is working on for the Center for Learning Education and Retraining Surry Community College and the town are building in Pilot Mountain. With the new facility, the extension will be able to get produce from local farmers, clean it, grade it and package it before selling it to institutions such as hospitals, schools and restaurants.

“I learned how many animals there were in Surry County and how much of an impact agriculture plays on the economy,” said William Sisk.

“I learned about some of the stuff we grew,” said Travis Lowry.

The students have been able to use these speakers to get a better idea of career paths they may want to follow after high school. They learned about some of the opportunities available to them.

“CTE Week is definitely really good. It helps people get an idea of something they might look at as a career,” said Belcher.

“It gives you a lot of information,” said Robert Pike, who was interested in the Pilot Mountain Pride program.

“It’s definitely a good thing. It helps with your job choices,” said Sisk.

While the students are excited about the opportunities provided by the week, they hope that in the future the presenters will be more localized, portraying jobs that are available in this area and what it is like to work in those fields.

“I think they need to have more community members who could come talk about their job experience. I want to stay around here so I would have benefited from that,” said Belcher.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.