Mercer County Technical Education Center’s Grow Your Own Program works to combat teacher shortage

This is the first year of the Grow Your Own Program at Mercer County Technical Education Center. The program allows for high school students to receive a dual credit at Bluefield State University and New River Community College.

Speaking with WVVA, Les Farmer, who is an instructor at Mercer County Technical Education Center, said of the program, “They’re getting pretty much their first year, approximately a year and a half of college completely paid for. Then when they go onto their institution they’ll have to pay for their second and third year of college. Then in their fourth year which is their senior year of college, then they’ll actually come back and be under my supervision.”

According to Farmer, there are around 1,400 job openings for teachers in West Virginia. He has plans to expand the program so that it can offer paid apprenticeships and partner with more West Virginia colleges.

Still, he is proud of the success of the program so far: “This is a first year program so we’re trying to figure out what works best for us and our students as well as these other institutions. Once we get all the kinks and stuff figured out, especially this semester. I think this program could be even more successful,” said Farmer.

Students who have been enrolled in the program thus far seem to be pleased with how it is working out for them. Also speaking with WVVA was Emma Furches, a senior at Princeton High School, who said, “I learned definitely what age group that I like to work with the most and I got to see what I liked as far as teaching strategies and what works and what doesn’t.” 

Another Princeton High School senior Madison Robinson spoke about the experience as well, saying, “So far I’ve just been working with Bluefield and New River’s college, just doing a bunch of work and we’ve talked about next month we’re going to start going into classrooms and helping teachers out.”

Les Farmer also noted that interest in the program has grown steadily and that he expects the program to grow over the next few years. 

The Grow Your Own Program is a student organization through MCTEC through the FEA, or Future Educators of America Association. Students interested in the Grow Your Own Program can find more information on Mercer County Technical Education Center’s website.