Career Technical Education Provides
Pathways for the 21st Century
Letter from Charles Weis, Ph.D.
Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools
Special to PTA “Bell” Newsletter – June 2009
It’s often said that if you’re not on a path, you’re wandering – and for many
students, especially in middle and high school, that’s an unfortunate truth.
While parents and educators want to prepare young people to live
independently, doing work they love, our efforts to acquaint them with rewarding
career paths have been lacking. In fact, the age at which most youth become
independent has been edging upward in part because our education system has
emphasized academics apart from the world of work. Too many students graduate
from college still unsure of how they want to earn a living. In a highly
competitive global economy, that uncertainty puts our young people at risk.
Career technical education aims to remove that risk and put our students on a
path to more focused study and a productive career. Unlike narrow vocational
programs of the past, new career technical education (CTE) programs teach
rigorous academic concepts in a context that better prepares students for
college and a wide range of 21st century careers.
California has taken the lead in developing CTE curriculum standards for
grades 7 – 12 that are organized into 15 industry sectors – including
agriculture and natural resources, arts and entertainment, building trades and
construction, education and family services, engineering and design, finance and
business, health and medical technology, information technology, transportation,
and more.
Each sector has several “career pathways,” providing 58 pathway options in
total. The health sector, for example, has pathways to work in biotechnology
research, diagnostic services, informatics, support and therapeutic services. An
energy and utilities sector provides pathways to environmental technology, and
public utilities, among other fields. Each pathway prepares students to meet
state academic and technical standards and to pursue postsecondary
coursework related to their career of choice.
Making wise, well-informed choices is a major benefit of career technical
education. Another benefit comes from tapping into the career aspirations of
students: when they connect why they are learning with what they
are learning, they are more likely to work hard in school. Yet another benefit
of CTE is that early exposure to careers clarifies and de-mystifies career
options early-on. Students learn about the nature of the work, the skills
needed, the type of education or training preparation required, the salary to
expect, and where and how employment can be found.
While students of the past were often familiar with only a handful of career
options (teacher, doctor, lawyer, etc.), students today can get an early
introduction to hundreds.
While career academies and Regional Occupational Programs typically served
only a small segment of students, CTE-based programs now can prepare all
students for college and careers.
Integrating career technical education into the curriculum is a relatively
new but essential component of school reform in California. At the County Office
of Education, we are enthusiastically supporting the CTE efforts of our local
schools, and we just received a state grant to develop a model CTE distance
learning program.
To maximize the benefits of CTE, we need the help of parents and our business
and community partners. We need people working in all industry sector
professions to:
- visit classrooms as guest speakers;
- provide job shadow opportunities;
- host field trips to business and work sites;
- simply have career-focused conversations with students about their work
and how their education prepared them for it.
We need to expose students to a full range of career options and the rewards
and demands they can reap from the world of work. Then they can choose a path
that’s best suited to their interests, abilities and aspirations.
Most people change jobs a few times in their working life, but few change
their field or career path. Thus few tasks are more important for parents and
educators than introducing students to all career opportunities available to
them. Studies show that young people who take CTE classes are more engaged in
school, and more likely to stay in school, graduate, and obtain a postsecondary
education than those who do not. In short, career technical education turns kids
on to school and prepares them for the global economy of the 21st century.
For more information on career technical education, go to the County Office
of Education Web site at
www.sccoe.org. Click on
Resources for Teachers – CTE. For activities that schools can pursue to support
CTE, go to http://www.khake.com/page94.html.
Date last updated: July 7, 2009
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