The Career Readiness Academy (CREA) is an academic and career readiness program that provides older English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) with the opportunity to prepare for the General Education Development (GED) exam, learn valuable work skills, and earn industry certifications.
Students are referred to CREA if they are at least 18 years old and unlikely to meet all graduation requirements before turning 21.
The program was developed in 2016 and it’s offered at both Seneca Valley High School and Thomas Edison High School of Technology as a full-day or evening program. CREA currently has about 160 students enrolled– 110 of those students are part of the evening program. Many of the students prefer the evening program because they work full time during the day.
MyMCM visited the evening program at Thomas Edison High School and spoke to Dr. Lindsay Walberg, program specialist, to learn more about CREA.
