Mitchell High CTE Teachers Take an Industry Tour of Ingles Headquarters and French Broad Chocolate Factory

On Tuesday, October 22nd the Career and Technical Education staff from Mitchell county attended an industry tour at the Ingles Headquarters in Block Mountain and the French Broad Chocolate Factory in Asheville.  In order to ensure all CTE students are being taught to relevant industry standards Career and Technical Education educators attend yearly industry tours related to the wide variety of CTE programs.  Making industry connections in their local area allows Mitchell High School CTE educators the opportunity to enhance their classroom instruction and increase the placement of students in the workforce after graduation.

The educators attended a two hour professional development tour provided by Ingles Human Resources detailing Ingles career opportunities.  Mitchell  CTE educators learned that Ingles currently employees over 27,000 people across 6 states and includes careers across a wide variety of the sixteen career clusters.  At the French Broad Chocolate Factory, CTE teachers learned about the companies founders who bought a Cocoa farm in Costa Rico and eventually started the French Broad Chocolate Factory in Asheville, NC.  The industry tour was a great success and allowed CTE teachers to see how students could pursue careers at Ingles and French Broad Chocolate related to any of the current CTE program offerings in Mitchell County.