It’s a trend that has ricocheted through rural communities for generations: high school graduates continue to leave their small towns behind for big colleges and broader career opportunities, leaving local companies struggling to sustain a skilled workforce. The skills gap widens, and the community slowly hollows out.
This doesn’t have to be the inevitable outcome. But closing the gap requires more than good intentions from school districts – it demands deliberate leadership, collaboration with local business owners, and policy investment in career and technical education infrastructure tied directly to local economic needs.
By working together, community partners strengthen their ability to keep young people rooted locally and retain the talent that contributes to regional growth.
What a school-led workforce pipeline can look like
Baker City offers a compelling proof of concept. A rural community of 10,000 in Eastern Oregon, Baker City sits within a region that, despite low unemployment, faces persistent workforce shortages driven by remote geography, an aging population and a thin pipeline of career-ready candidates.
In 2014, Baker School District 5J partnered with local businesses and county leaders to launch the Baker Technical Institute. This nonprofit institution provides high school students, recent graduates, and adult learners with industry-recognized certifications, skilled trades training and a hands-on STEM-integrated curriculum.
Over the past 12 years, BTI programs have grown to reach students across Oregon, California, Washington and Idaho, many in rural areas without local access to CTE training.
Programs that meet regional labor demand
BTI’s 10 high school pathways are designed around the careers that rural economies need to fill, from culinary arts to construction and translate directly into stable, well-paying careers within the region.
For instance, students can complete clinical training at regional hospitals and earn their Certified Nursing Assistant certification before graduating. Others gain hands-on experience operating loaders, dozers, and other heavy equipment, or earn industry-recognized credentials such as American Welding Society certifications. This summer, BTI will open the APEX Elite Line Academy, where students can learn pole climbing, line construction and transformer operation – skills in critically short supply as rural utilities expand and age.
BTI creates a seamless bridge to accreditation and apprenticeship programs without requiring a four-year degree or relocation. In addition, CTE participation has been associated with higher student attendance rates, lower dropout rates and stronger on-time graduation. In a rural community where many students disengage from traditional academic college pathways, their ability to draw a clear line between what they’re learning and where they’re going makes school feel worth showing up for.
What this means for school leadership
The BTI model works because it was built on a clear vision: thriving rural communities must have a skilled workforce supply, and the premise that rural schools cannot develop workforce pipelines in isolation. For state and federal policymakers, the implications are direct:
Fund regional delivery infrastructure. Many rural districts lack the facilities, equipment or instructors to run CTE programs independently. BTI’s mobile learning platforms demonstrate that regional hubs can serve multiple districts simultaneously, but only with the capital investment to build and sustain them.
Align CTE certification pathways with labor market data. Programs are most effective when they lead to credentials that local employers are actively seeking. Policy frameworks should incentivize school-industry alignment and reward districts that demonstrate measurable labor market outcomes.
Treat dual enrollment as a workforce tool, not just an academic one. Concurrent enrollment in CTE programs reduces the cost and time-to-employment for students who don’t pursue four-year degrees, which is a population that represents the majority of the rural workforce pipeline.
Measure CTE’s impact on attendance and graduation, not just employment. School leaders often evaluate CTE programs through a certification rate or a job placement lens. But the full return on investment includes students who stay in school longer, miss fewer days and graduate because a CTE pathway gave them a concrete reason to stay. Accountability frameworks should explicitly capture these outcomes and funding formulas should reward them.
Support cross-district collaboration. BTI’s expansion happened because the original model was designed for replication. Policies that encourage and fund inter-district and regional partnerships dramatically extend the reach of successful programs without requiring every rural district to build capacity from scratch.
The broader opportunity
Rural communities have real leverage over the workforce challenges they face, but only if they use it. Schools can lay the foundation, but lasting change requires state and federal partners who understand that a young person choosing to build a career close to home is not settling. It is, in many cases, the better opportunity, if the pathways are actually there.
The question for education leaders is whether rural students will have those pathways. The Baker School District and the Baker Technical Institute show that, with the right investment and partnerships, they can.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
Subscribe to SmartBrief’s FREE email newsletters to see the latest hot topics on educational leadership in ISTE and ISTELeaders. They’re among SmartBrief’s more than 200 industry-focused newsletters.