Business, marketing career pathways popular in area

Marketing is the career pathway program area with the largest enrollment across local schools.

Career pathway data from the Kentucky Department of Education is broken down into program areas and more specifically by pathway. Thirteen program areas encompass the offerings made available to students around the region.

Those 12 program areas are business, government, STEM, information technology, family and consumer sciences, education and training, health science, law and public safety, construction, agriculture, transportation, manufacturing and marketing.

Fifty-four total pathways are available to students in the region within the 12 categories.

KDE data shows active enrollment numbers for each pathway in a district. While concentration and completion numbers are available, important data is missing.

Only active enrollment numbers will be used here. A few of those numbers are missing, so the numbers will be approximate.

The data provided by KDE is from the 2020-21 school year. It is important to note that districts around the region have added offerings to students since the end of last school year. However, enrollment data on those will not be available until next fall.

The program area with pathways taught at the largest number of districts is business with nine districts offering various pathways. Marketing is the most enrolled area with 1,473 enrolled across three pathways among seven districts. The area with the least enrolled is law and public safety with 76. A single pathway in the area, pre-law studies, is only offered in Ashland.

Program areas by enrollment with number of pathways and districts offering a pathway in the area:

• Marketing — 1,473 enrolled in four pathways among seven districts

• Agriculture — 1,371 enrolled in five pathways among six districts

• Health Science — 1,094 enrolled in seven pathways among six districts

• Family and Consumer Sciences — 1,091 enrolled in six pathways among seven districts

• Business — 1,046 enrolled in three pathways among nine districts

• Manufacturing — 512 enrolled in five pathways among six districts

• Government — 507 enrolled in four pathways (all are branches of JROTC) among eight districts

• Construction — 486 enrolled in five pathways among eight districts

• STEM — 397 enrolled in in pathways among eight districts

Business, marketing career pathways popular in area

• Information Technology — 365 enrolled in five pathways among four districts

• Transportation — 102 enrolled in one pathway among two districts

• Law and Public Safety — 76 enrolled in one pathway in one district

• Education and Training — enrollment numbers are unavailable for the one pathway in the one district with the area

No more than three districts provide one of the nine STEM pathways available making it the area with the largest number of options, but has less enrolled than nine other areas. STEM’s nine pathways is followed by seven in health science and six in family and consumer sciences. Five pathways are in each construction, information technology, manufacturing and agriculture. Marketing has four. Government has JROTC, which has four different pathways when divided by branch. Business has three pathways. Law and public safety, transportation, and education and training each have one pathway.

The top 10 pathways with the largest enrollment:

Administrative support (business) — 886 in eight districts
Management entrepreneurship (marketing) — 821 in four districts
Pre-nursing (health science) — 691 in eight districts
Horticulture and plant science systems (agriculture) — 609 in six districts
Culinary and food services (family and consumer sciences) — 476 in five districts
E-commerce (marketing) — 462 in three districts
Animal science and systems (agriculture) — 365 in four districts
Welder entry level (manufacturing) — 332 in six districts
Consumer and family sciences (family and consumer sciences) — 329 in four districts
10. Army JROTC (government) — 317 in five districts

Ashland offers 18 pathways in nine areas for a total enrollment of 981. Ashland’s most popular pathway is administrative support with 221 enrolled. The business based pathway is followed by culinary and food services and early childhood education with 118.

Ashland is the only local district to offer automation engineering, pharmacy technical and pre-law studies. The district is one of two that offer accounting, civil engineering, EKG technology and PLTW biomedical sciences.

Boyd County’s most popular pathway is pre-nursing with an enrollment of 209. Culinary and food services is next with 195 followed by management entrepreneurship with 173, horticulture plant science systems with 128 and animal science systems 122. The district offers 20 pathways in 11 areas with a total enrollment of 1,446, which is the second highest enrollment in all districts.

Boyd County is the sole district to offer fashion and interior design, electrical electronic engineering, digital design and game development and welding engineering. It is the only district that offer the Naval branch of JROTC. Boyd is one of two districts that offers network administration, automotive maintenance and light repair technician, and clinical medical assisting.

Carter County offers 26 pathways district wide across 11 areas for a district wide enrollment of 2,103. The district’s career and technical center offers nine pathways in six areas with 394 enrolled. The most popular is cyber engineering with 95 enrolled. Mechanical engineering is a close second with 92. East Carter offers nine pathways in six areas with 868 enrolled. West Carter enrolls students in 13 pathways in five areas with 841 enrolled.

The two most popular pathways at each high school are managerial entrepreneurship — 289 at East and 197 at West —and horticulture and plant science systems — 128 at East and 162 at West. The third most popular at East is e-commerce with 113. The third most populated at West is agricultural power structural technical systems with 99.

Carter County is the only in the area to offer cyber engineering, fundamentals of teaching and hospitality travel tourism and recreation. Cyber engineering is offered at the technical center, the other two are only offered in West Carter. It is one of two area districts to offer civil designer.

Elliott County offers eight pathways in eight areas with an enrollment of 449. The most popular is administrative support with 139 followed by consumer and family sciences with 99. Elliott County is the only district to offer civil architecture and construction technology.

Fairview offers only marketing with an enrollment of 146.

Greenup County’s most populated pathway is e-commerce with 316. Animal science is second with 85 and JROTC is third with 78. Greenup is the only district in the area to offer the Marine Corps. branch of JROTC. It is also one of two, along with Boyd, to offer automotive maintenance and light repair technician. It is also one of two along with Russell to offer industrial electrician assistant and the Skilled Trades Construction Electrical Track.

Lawrence County enrolled 956 in 17 pathways from seven areas. The most popular is civil engineering with 131. Consumer and family services was second with 108 and accounting listed 107. Lawrence joins Ashland as one of two district in the area to offer accounting, civil engineering and PLTW biomedical technician. Lawrence County is the sole district to offer construction architectural engineering, flight and aeronautics, and heavy equipment sciences.

Lewis County offers 16 pathways in eight areas with an enrollment of 843. The highest enrollments are pre-nursing with 23 and administrative support with 212. Lewis and Carter Counties are the only two in the area offering civil designer. Lewis is the only to offer mechanical designer and financial services.

Raceland-Worthington offers four pathways in three areas with 249 enrolled. The highest enrollment is 114 in administrative support. Engineering design has an enrollment of 69 and is only offered locally at Raceland-Worthington.

Russell offers 13 pathways in seven areas with 628 enrolled. Russell’s most popular pathway is Allied Health with 123 enrolled. Management entrepreneurship and architectural technology are tied for second with 100.

Russell is the only district to offer the Air Force branch of JROTC in the area. It is also the only district to offer architectural technology and web development and administration. Russell is one of two districts in the area to offer network administration, clinical medical assisting, industrial electrician assistant and the Skilled Trades Construction Electrical Track.

The top five pathways by number of districts: