Career and Technical Education in the public school system offers a robust way of expanding the boundaries of learning beyond the traditional classroom, and equipping a student with very applicable workplace skills. Participation in CTE pathways can help ensure that students do not focus their studies on only one subject or method of learning so much so that they lose sight of the skills which will help them obtain reliable employment later on. There is, however, a stigma that surrounds modern day Career and Technical Education: that only those students who don’t plan to attend college, who aren’t academically motivated, or who will ultimately will end up working a blue collar job belong in a CTE pathway. This assumption is simply not true, and recent strides made by educators to update curriculum and better inform student decisions to pursue a technical pathway promise a future where CTE is a viable option for all. Yet, multiple misconceptions stand in the way.
The stigmatization of Career and Technical Education and the misconceptions that surround it are both contributing factors to CTE’s varied success throughout the nation, and have led some educators to question the efficacy of technical education in the school system. Until we properly educate ourselves on the nuances of Career and Technical Education — while challenging antiquated definitions associated with it — CTE will likely continue to lag behind. If, however, we challenge these notions and work harder to prioritize a multifaceted technical education, we can open up greater career opportunities for struggling students while simultaneously strengthening career-readiness for students across the board.
It is first important to distinguish between modern-day CTE pathways and the more antiquated vocational education still offered in some public schools, though in decline. The National Center for Education Statistics paraphrases the 1990 Perkins Act in defining vocational education as: “organized educational programs offering a sequence of courses which are directly related to the preparation of individuals in paid or unpaid employment in current or emerging occupations requiring other than a baccalaureate or advanced degree.” Vocational school can be offered at certain high schools and Area Technical Centers, though is more likely to take place at an off-campus technical school. The intent is to provide students with highly specialized job training that will be directly applicable during postsecondary employment. Your grandfather’s woodworking and shop class would fall under this category comfortably.
Modern CTE programs, however, seek to provide students with an educational experience that doesn’t abandon the core subjects of English, history, math, and science but rather embraces and applies these subjects in a very practical, world-of-work context. This educational immersion prepares students for high school graduation and encourages them to seek a higher education pathway (whether a two-year or four-year program) that still draws upon the practical skills they learned during their time in the program. To utilize the same example of the woodworking class, students in this CTE pathway are taught how to read blueprints, make detailed drawings, and utilize state-of-the-art, industry-standard technology commonly used in the modern woodworking industry. The basic gist: CTE programs allow a student who otherwise might have wondered about the value of school to see a direct connection between high school graduation, continuing education, and obtaining a good job.
I am a Career and Technical Education student. Enrolled in the Allied Health pathway, I have taken supplemental courses in principles of health science, medical terminology, emergency procedures, and anatomy and physiology. This pathway culminates in a job shadow experience my senior year, thus allowing me to earn the “career-ready” certification as dictated by my local workforce board. I am also a highly involved and motivated scholar engaged in multiple extracurriculars, and have taken Advanced Placement classes all four years of high school. I’ll thus also graduate “college-ready,” and plan to matriculate at a four-year university, with hopes of attending medical school or obtaining a doctoral degree later on.
Employers don’t wish to hire people whose only ability is carrying out a rudimentary technical skill (a robot could certainly do that); they want employees who possess an open mind, who value creativity, and who have the capability to be flexible and adaptable. Likewise, universities don’t wish to recruit scholars who plan to ponder all the open-ended questions that still plague the world while never putting forth a practical solution; they desire intellectuals who again have a capacity to be creative and innovative, but who also possess very practical technical skills that allow for the seamless conversion of abstract thoughts to concrete blueprints.
Sadly, the number of students taking an academically rigorous, college-ready course load, while simultaneously fulfilling the requirements of a CTE pathway (in order to be career-ready), is not as large a number as one would hope or think. The students I attend school with feel as if they have to choose between the two. Yet, to be clear, a dichotomy between the two does not and should not exist. Rather, the two options should be able to coexist and intersect when appropriate. Employers don’t wish to hire people whose only ability is carrying out a rudimentary technical skill (a robot could certainly do that); they want employees who possess an open mind, who value creativity, and who have the capability to be flexible and adaptable. Likewise, universities don’t wish to recruit scholars who plan to ponder all the open-ended questions that still plague the world while never putting forth a practical solution; they desire intellectuals who again have a capacity to be creative and innovative, but who also possess very practical technical skills that allow for the seamless conversion of abstract thoughts to concrete blueprints.
In practice, though, CTE teachers in Kentucky have reported that they are commonly sent students who are struggling academically. As one Kentucky CTE teacher who preferred to remain anonymous put it, “Counselors often enlist our help as CTE teachers to help create a pathway to success for students who are struggling academically, basically encouraging us to ‘get them ready for something after graduation.’” In a recent analysis conducted by the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics, it was found that students that were both college- and career-ready were nearly twice as likely to have a 3.0 GPA or higher. This suggests that being “career-ready,” aka engaging in technical education in high school, does not have to come at the expense of academic rigor or grade point average. So why aren’t students being presented with these options in a way that isn’t mutually exclusive?
As a Kentucky student who will graduate both career- and college-ready, I personally can attest to the value of both mediums of education. I feel enabled to succeed in the traditional high school and college classroom as a result of my college level course load, yet I also feel competent in communication, professionalism, and interpersonal skills, due to the workplace oriented courses I took alongside my core subjects as well as a culminating job-shadow opportunity senior year. It is worth noting that the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education has made the development of graduates’ Essential Employability Qualities a strategic priority for 2-year and 4-year higher education programs.
For students who are obtaining a moderate to high GPA in high school, most are opting to take coursework that places them on the pathway to 4-year degrees as opposed to venturing into the career-ready facet of their education. The same graduation analysis conducted by the KCEWS showed that approximately 70 percent of students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher were only college-ready and not career-ready — an overwhelming majority. Only 17 percent of this upper GPA bracket of students graduated both career-ready and college-ready — a continued pattern of high achieving students passing up outlets to gain workplace skills, and academically low achieving students (or their counselors) turning to CTE as a last-ditch effort. As Forbes put it in their compelling article titled “Is Career and Technical Education Good News or Bad”: “CTE as a dumping ground for system-rejected students where they can be fashioned into fodder for dead-end employers is a bad, bad idea.” They, however, are more optimistic, going on to say: “Fortunately, because CTE is not a new idea, there are many schools that can show how to do it properly.”
Destigmatizing Career and Technical Education and properly distinguishing it from the more antiquated vocational school framework from which it evolved is the first essential step in making CTE a viable option for all students. Oftentimes as a society, our perception of something can determine the trends that follow. We must challenge the norm and go against assumed definitions in and of Career and Technical Education. We must instead recognize that technical education can effectively prepare a student for success and work in concert with college-ready coursework. Students deserve an education that equally prepares them for continued academic studies and workplace engagement, and the adults within the education and workforce system must better integrate current industry-essential skills, design curriculums that work in tandem with college-ready coursework, and broaden the criteria for potential CTE participants in order to achieve this. By doing so, we will better foster students with the skillset to truly affect change beyond the confines of the classroom, as they influence the private sector, industry, and all other spheres of life as well.
