This is last in a series focusing on the programs offered by the Levittown Vocational Center.

Over the last few months this series has been focusing on the various programs already offered by the Levittown Vocational Center, but LVC also has two programs that have been planned and may begin this fall. With enough enrollment, next year the vocational center will be adding building maintenance and medical assisting to its offerings.

The building maintenance program is a one-year program designed to provide an introduction to basic construction areas that will prepare students with a broad base of skills needed to obtain employment as a carpenter's helper, building maintainer or custodian.

Other career opportunities available in the building maintenance field include building yard or stock person, landscape construction, electrician's helper, mason laborer, construction laborer, or furniture and machinery maintainer. In the building maintenance program students, in grades 10, 11, and 12, would learn job safety and tool usage, as well as basic construction skills including woodworking, plumbing, masonry, electrical, sheet metal, and small machinery repairs.

Through this program students would gain practical experience by working on hands-on construction modules, maintaining school buildings and working on individual projects. The students in the building maintenance program would get on-the-job training by working with the school district's custodial staff.

Those students who would like to continue with vocational training after this one year course could go on to the auto mechanics, carpentry, electrical technology, design drafting, or landscaping/floral design programs.

The medical assisting program, expected to begin in the fall, would provide students with a combination of office procedures and knowledge of medical terminology designed to assist doctors in a wide variety of medical settings. An orientation to the health care field and general medical knowledge would also be included in the course. The primary goal of this program would be to provide students with the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to obtain employment in the field of allied health care. In addition, it is designed to help students enhance their leadership, communication, and management skills. Students who completed the medical assisting program would be entitled to one-half unit of credit in health.

In addition to learning medical terminology and procedures, students in the medical assisting program would learn computer skills such as scheduling, record keeping, medical coding, and insurance/billing procedures. They would also have clinical experiences including CPR Practice and Certification, First Aid Training, Patient Preparation, and Medical office simulations.

This program would prepare the students for careers such as medical assistant, medical receptionist, or hospital records clerk so they could work in clinics, health centers, hospitals, industry, private doctors' offices, medical labs, public health systems, or schools.

Students who complete the medical assisting program and continue their education with post secondary training may pursue careers in physical therapy, cardiology, radiology, geriatrics, pediatrics, lab technology, ophthalmology, respiratory therapy, medicine or psychiatry.

Government surveys have found that medical assisting is among the best fields to be in for the coming years. This program would offer students an excellent foundation for college-bound students interested in the medical field.