Is career and technical education important today?
Definitely! The future of career education is increasing rapidly, and the Poplar Bluff School District is working to meet those needs so current and future students are prepared for success. The president of the United States recently released a proposed budget increase in career and technical education (CTE) of over $900 million. This is just the latest development in the renewed support of Career Education across the country. The nation’s skills gap is getting close to a critical state and has been fueling a renewed interest in CTE.
Employers are working hard to fill new positions created due to technology and demand changes, as well as needing to fill existing positions that are being vacated by the baby boomers that have 30-40+ years of experience. CTE is on the upswing as need demolishes old stigmas and creates an environment ripe for collaboration and mutual benefit.
I have been involved in career and technical education for the past 25 years. As a result, I have become passionate about the potential being unearthed. People must recognize how CTE can help with the skills gap. Traditional hiring methods are not as successful in recent years. The young generation is often overlooked when trying to meet the growing needs of industry. The career and technical staff of the Poplar Bluff R-I School District have been actively working to cultivate new relationships with industry.
A hiring fair was instituted this past year. We have been working to do more with our partners; we created or are working to create paid and unpaid externships/internships, guest speaking opportunities project-based learning (where students become partners in solving a real industry problem), and so much more. All of these opportunities require a longer term commitment when considering and recruiting future talent. Our peers across the country are seeing success by making a long term investment. This involves not just money but time and talents. We work continually to provide opportunities for local industry to interact with high school students.
Our CTE students can meet the needs expressed via the skills gap but we need help to accomplish this to a high degree. As the director of the Poplar Bluff Technical Career Center, I am privileged to have a vantage that most in the community and many in industry don’t have. I see the potential as well as the daily accomplishments that are being carried out each day by our students.
Whether it is a student, doing an alignment and inspection of a vehicle, or working a dent out of late-model car, or repairing an HVACR unit, or building a new house, or writing code for a 911 app, or fixing the networking problem in a classroom, or working with the elderly in a residential care facility, or giving someone a new hairstyle, or welding a certified weld, or creating a dish that people drive across town to order, or making a banner for a local sports team through CTE. I see employable skills and accomplishments added to our students’ lives daily. Skills that can never be taken away and will be beneficial for a student’s lifetime.
High school age CTE students are capable of more than many realize, especially, when students are paired with mentors and future colleagues early in the skill development (education) process. This grooms them to be industry professionals that are truly work ready as they enter the workforce.
We need your help in reinforcing the “real” in our real world curriculum. Every time a curriculum component and practice is backed by a visiting industry professional students make a connection that validates those practices and their importance to them.
As a result, it is our goal for it to be a common practice, rather than a rarity for industry professionals to walk our halls as a part of the instructional day reinforcing and supplementing curriculum. Students develop their own plans for after high school whether it be in industry, post-secondary training or college. We want our students to be a step ahead on their personal path to career success.
Time - Talent - Treasures, if you are vested and/or want to be vested in the future of the Career and Technical Education, please reach out and let us know. Career and technical education is extremely important today.
What can you do? The Technical Career Center has many ways you can be apart of our processes. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing the full potential of our students as we continue to evolve to meet demand. If you would like to be a partner of PBHS or PBTCC, feel free to contact me at 573-785-2248.
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This is the third in a series of articles highlighting career and technical education. Charles Kinsey is the director of the Poplar Bluff Technical Career Center.