Silicon Valley Career Technical Education (SVCTE) hosted its annual Fall Shadow Day on Nov. 13, giving students across the county an opportunity to explore more than 25 career-focused programs, including engineering, cybersecurity and animation.
SVCTE runs its yearly programs through brief classroom visits, instructor demonstrations and hands-on activities at SVCTE’s campus in the Metropolitan Education District in San Jose. SVCTE offers morning and afternoon programs in fields such as engineering, health sciences, public safety, digital media and automotive technology.
Students enroll through their high school and split time between SVCTE and their regular campuses, earning both high school credits and potential college credit. Even with extremely valuable interactive courses and pre-career benefits, only a few students from SHS typically join the program each year.
The goal of each Shadow Day remains consistent: to help students experience a hands-on class before deciding whether to enroll in SVCTE. It gives participants a low-pressure way to compare different fields, see what hands-on activities are part of their career and decide whether a planned job path fits their interests and goals.
According to SVCTE communications coordinator Shannon Carr, the program’s latest Shadow Day event brought in 50 students from 12 schools across the Bay Area. Carr also noted that 57 out of 58 surveyed participants marked they were now interested in taking an SVCTE class. District leaders also report that SVCTE now serves approximately 1,380 students across its 25 programs, bringing the center close to 90% capacity as enrollment continues to rise.
Junior Nabil Fayad first heard about the program not through Shadow Day, but at an SHS Career Day fair where SVCTE staff had a table set up in the large gym. He remembers spotting a flyer on the table in the back of the gym and grabbing it out of curiosity.
Once he began reviewing the course list, Fayad was intrigued by SVCTE’s Nursing Careers program, a medical assisting course; the program would allow him to apply for a certified clinical medical assistant (CCMA) credential, which focuses on real-world clinical tasks. SVCTE’s certificates, offered in all of its programs, would even allow students to apply for jobs directly after high school graduation.
Because SVCTE classes replace one or two periods at SHS, students are required to work through their academic counselors to add an SVCTE course to their schedules and confirm availability and registration steps early before spring. Despite the tedious registration process, Fayad enrolled in the Nursing Careers program, which would start in 2024.
When Fayad first started taking classes at SVCTE as a sophomore, he found himself surrounded by students from schools across the South Bay. The mix of campuses and backgrounds made the atmosphere very different from SHS, but it was also part of what made the experience unique and valuable.
Fayad’s program teaches skills like how to take blood tests, perform first aid and execute CPR. It also teaches students about viruses and bacteria to maintain the highest level of cleanliness in a medical office environment.
What stood out most to Fayad was the diagnostic inquiry in medicine — being able to run tests like drawing blood, completing a TB test or taking records of a special specimen. The program also pushed him to think more seriously about his future career. Fayad now hopes to major in public health as a path into medicine.
Looking ahead, SVCTE opens enrollment and begins accepting applications for the 2025-26 school year in spring; SVCTE plans to hold additional Shadow Days next semester, giving interested students another opportunity to tour classrooms, meet instructors and learn more about each program and their future career choice. SVCTE will also continue its outreach through tours, counselor meetings and school presentations.
The center is also preparing to release a brand new AI Engineering course debuting in 2026-27. The yearlong class will teach students how to use Python and machine learning models to build intelligent systems, making it the first-ever public-school AI class in Santa Clara County.
Fayad hopes more SHS students will at least explore SVCTE as an option alongside traditional classes. The experience is worth it for students who are genuinely interested and willing to learn in a different classroom environment.
“At Saratoga, we kind of have this idea that learning has to be done in one classroom on one campus, but I don’t think that’s true,” he said.
