IB Career Certificate Program?

Pre-College Issues International Baccalaureate (IB)
1

<p>My daughter's large public high school has recently added the IB Career Certificate to their IB program. It allows students to combine IB learning with classes taken at an award winning Technology Academy in the school district that offers hands-on courses in Medicine, Engineering, Computer Science, and other STEM careers. </p>

<p>Requirements include:
Participation in one of the two-year career program options offered through Technology Academy
• At least two IB courses
• Two-year study of a second language while maintaining a portfolio to track progress*
• Approaches to Learning course
• Career-related research project on ethics
• Fifty career-related service hours</p>

<p>One bonus of the certificate if a student pursues it is the district will pay IB testing fees (parents pay if student isn't pursing full diploma). The problem for my daughter doing this route (she is interested in the medical programs) is that it causes problems with her schedule for junior and senior year as she has already completed her two language courses (courses taken must be continue junior-senior year) and wants to take more AP classes (AP calculus, AP Chem) than IB. </p>

<p>Is anyone familiar with how colleges view this certificate? Is it worth pursuing or worthless?</p>

2

<p>Is this certificate in addition to the IB diploma?</p>

3

<p>The certificate (IBCC) is considered an alternate route for students to take, instead of pursuing the entire IB Diploma program. Students can still get individual certificates in IB subjects as well. The IBCC is geared for students who are “IB ready” but also want to take the hands on classes at the Technology Academy. They call it “Career Route” students, as opposed to those students taking the general IB classes.</p>

<p>I guess its a fairly new program offered through IB.</p>

4

<p>I have never heard of that program. Why don’t you try calling some colleges to ask about it? That’s what I did when my daughter decided to do IB.</p>

5

<p>The class of 2014 is the first year to graduate with the IBCC, so colleges might not know too much about the program. My school has it, and my friends who do it view it positively. It still has demands of IB, but the demands are more tailored to career and technical education. </p>

<p>To add more value to the program, don’t just take the bare minimum 2 IB classes. If your daughter takes more, she’ll have a mix of both (IBCC and diploma) to strenghten her resume.</p>