By Brent Haken
How career and technology education can help you
Integrating academic skills into a real-world context by providing career-oriented courses, internships, apprenticeships and in-school programs inspires students to be more engaged. That’s just one of the many benefits of career and technology education.
More policymakers, lawmakers and educators are recognizing the value of CareerTech training by expanding programs that emphasize curricula designed around career and college readiness.
Growing participation in CareerTech programs is among the many new goals we’ve set at Oklahoma CareerTech. They include increasing the number of K-12 students participating in CareerTech programs from 138,000 today to 150,000 within five years. At the state’s 29 technology centers, our goal is to grow full-time program enrollments from 30,000 to 40,000 during the same period.
Career and technology education shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should be an integral and critical piece of a K-12 education. Separating career readiness from college readiness is unnatural. Valuing one over the other is misguided. If we want to prepare the next generation of America’s workforce, students need cross-cutting skills like communication, problem-solving and empathy.
The value of career and technology education centers around its ability to give students the skills demanded by the labor market and to prepare them for postsecondary degrees in a wide range of technical fields.
Combining academic education and career training is important because it gives students the best chance at lifelong, gainful employment in a world of advancing automation and global integration. This is perhaps the greatest value of a CareerTech education.
CareerTech programs in aerospace, health care, construction, business, agriculture and film production provide hands-on training that translates directly to careers upon graduation from high school.
But while it gives students the option to go right to work from high school, it also prepares them for college, where they can gain a broad and deep education that enables them to adapt to changes in technology and workforce needs.
Through its network of school districts and technology centers, Oklahoma CareerTech has established a strong system for career and technology training that is built on a base of academic education.
Oklahoma is regularly recognized by other states for having one of the best CareerTech systems in the nation. That’s because we’ve built a reputation for being inclusive and breaking through silos that traditionally separate the academic subjects from the skills and knowledge provided by career and technology education.
CareerTech is investing in emerging technologies and new learning methods to provide an education for our times. These efforts require an approach that emphasizes broad academic learning coupled with a strong system for CareerTech training.
Oklahoma CareerTech can give students what they need to succeed in the workplace, in education and in life. They are getting technical skills, academic skills, employability skills and soft skills.
Investing in CareerTech is an investment in the future of America’s workforce. We should leverage this investment by making career and technology education an essential part of the high school experience for all students. By doing that, we will empower students to make informed choices and to choose the path they want for themselves.
If you would like to learn more about Oklahoma CareerTech, visit our website at oklahoma.gov/careertech.
Brent Haken is the state director of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education.
