Graphic design, website development, even a little drone flying – students in Digital  Imaging Technologies at Oxford High School will get a little taste of many different career paths involving technology.

Spanning the course of a year, this elective, survey-style class aims to give students a working understanding of skills and software becoming increasingly important in the modern working world.

“It’s hands-on (and) project-based,” teacher Matt Johnson told the Board of Education at its Sept. 11 meeting. “They’re learning 13 soft skills for the workplace environment and, at the same time, doing real world projects.”

The course is offered for five hours, one of which is taught by Johnson. The other four hours are taught by teacher Octi Mezin, who specializes in business strategy and web design.

Aside from learning about  technology, the students will learn soft skills vital to doing well in college and the workplace. Students will collaborate, question ethics, problem solve, exercise their creativity and make presentations throughout the course.

“Our course goals are really to help students become problem solvers and thinkers, as opposed to just (being) memorizers and students…” Johnson said. “We want them to be able to exercise creativity versus copy reproduction, and that they walk away with an understanding of our 13 soft skills.”

Students will also complete a Microsoft Word certification, with the option of earning certifications in Excel and PowerPoint as well. The certification is national and was not created by Oxford Schools.

Johnson said knowledge of these platforms is important for most jobs, and employers seek applicants who truly know how to fully use them.

“(We met with) business owners in the community, and they came to us and said, ‘We get a lot of applicants that say they’re proficient in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint,’” Mezin said. “Well, proficient means a lot of different things  to different people. Coming in there and saying ‘I’m certified’ has a whole different meaning.”

Johnson and Mezin hope their students, freshmen to seniors, will leave the course with a useful skill set and a better idea of what they may or may not want to pursue regarding  technology as they enter  adulthood.