Logan Stefanich is a reporter with KSL, covering southern Utah communities, education, business and tech news.
SALT LAKE CITY — Continuing a statewide trend of merging industry and education, the Utah System of Higher Education on Thursday announced the dispersal of $100 million to 29 districts and charter schools around the state to expand access to profession-based education for K-12 students.
Established through HB447 during the 2025 legislative session, the Catalyst Center Grant Program — now called the APEX Center Grant Program — establishes and funds expanded career and technical education, or CTE programs in schools, often called "catalyst centers."The legislation, sponsored by Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, was inspired by Schultz's visit to the Davis Catalyst Center."We need to find ways to get kids off of their cellphones, get them interacting and get them doing things with their hands and learning these types of skills," Schultz told the House Education Committee in 2025 when pushing his legislation. "And I think this is the perfect program for that to happen."Opened in 2022, the center was dubbed a first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art facility centered around career and technical education in the Beehive State.Examples of educational pathways offered through the Davis Catalyst Center include: Computer science Unmanned systems Digital entertainment and media production Business, marketing and entrepreneurship Culinary arts Medical assisting Pharmacy technician Additionally, the center enables students to work on advanced projects through partnerships with real-world businesses and organizations such as Epic Games, Adobe, Intermountain Health, Hill Air Force Base and many others.The initiative builds on this model, engaging students in industry-aligned, project-based learning tied to specific career tracks."This program reflects the strong collaboration between Utah's education and workforce partners to create clearer pathways for students," Geoffrey Landward, Utah commissioner of higher education, said in a statement. "Through Talent Ready Utah and APEX, we are connecting education and industry so students can move more seamlessly from high school into certificates, degrees and employment while supporting the state's workforce needs."To ensure grant proposals were redundant rather than complementary to existing programs, state higher education officials and Talent Ready Utah collaborated with the Utah Stat
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