KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Gov. Bill Lee was in Knoxville Friday leading a roundtable discussion with county leaders on high school career and technical education.
Mayor Glenn Jacobs, Superintendent Bob Thomas, Board of Education members, Knox County commissioners, local state legislators, business partners, and Chamber representatives were at the Vocational, Education and Workforce Development Roundtable discussion.
It took place at South-Doyle High School.
One topic he discussed was his most recent initiative called GIVE. It focuses on vocational and technical training for Tennessee students.
"We are going to expand the opportunities for kids to be one step closer to a career when they graduate high school," Gov. Lee said.
"We have to have companies that are, and non-profits, that are willing to engage with us and invest their time and their resources and their equipment and their contributions to curriculum," Lee said. "I would encourage each one of you that are working together to make this happen, be sure that we have companies, industries, and community leaders at the table as we talk about how we're going to build these programs going forward."
Gov. Lee was asked how to attract instructors.
"We need to make it easier for folks who want to engage," Gov. Lee said.
He said he didn't have an exact way to tackle it but he wrote down the topic to work on ways to do that.
Gov. Lee also went on a small group tour of CTE classes including collision repair, welding, healthcare and business and marketing.