Career and Technical Education Transfer Agreements Boost Options for Incoming Students

August 1, 2023

For decades, Hudson Valley Community College has worked to solidify transfer agreements that help graduates seamlessly move on to four-year colleges and universities with as many transferrable credits as possible.

Now, college officials are also focusing on students who come to Hudson Valley with a significant amount of coursework in career and technical education (CTE) programs at local and regional school districts, and forging agreements that will award credit for skills they’ve learned before enrolling at Hudson Valley.

“The goal of these new agreements is to provide advanced standing for those who successfully complete career and technical education programs at the high school level and to recognize the learning outcomes that they achieved,” said President Roger Ramsammy. “The skills learned at that level should apply to the degree these students would be pursuing at Hudson Valley.”

Over the past year, the college has created formal agreements with several CTE programs, including those at Capital Region BOCES, Questar III BOCES, Orange-Ulster County BOCES and the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES, and also with the Auto Collision Tech program at the Pittsfield (MA) City School District.

Most of the agreements link applied technology programs like building construction, automotive technology, HVAC, manufacturing and welding at regional BOCES to similar degrees at the college, but some agreements are for programs in digital media, exercise science, criminal justice and early childhood education, which all have corresponding degrees at Hudson Valley.

By forging these formal agreements between CTE programs and the college, more students will continue their education at the college level and expand their skills before entering the workforce. The agreements also recognize the level of technical skills and ability many students have already achieved in K-12 CTE programs and rewards those skills with college credit.

“Fostering strong articulation agreements with local colleges like Hudson Valley Community College allows our students to save time and money and to pursue more advanced courses earlier in their college career. We look forward to working with Hudson Valley on expanding these opportunities for students,” said Dr. Gladys I. Cruz, District Superintendent, Questar III BOCES.

College officials are continuing to meet with school districts to reach additional mutually beneficial agreements that could benefit students.