Career and Technical Education
Graduating the Nation's Future Workforce
This article originally appeared in the November 14 issue of MDR’s EdNET Insight news alert series, “Voice From The Industry.”
This past summer, President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address at Worcester Technical High School (WTHS) in Worcester, Massachusetts. This career and technical education (CTE) school used to be the city’s lowest-performing high school but is now lauded by education officials for its successful school-to-work program—a program whose dropout rate is 1/4th that of the state average.
The success of CTE programs like WTHS is not new. The average high school graduation rate for CTE students is 90.18%, compared with an average national graduation rate of 80%. By combining academics with internships and other on-the-job experiences, as Worchester has done, CTE programs engage students. They teach students academic and technical skills in the context of career areas, creating relevant learning experiences that can play a significant role in helping them complete high school and prepare themselves for postsecondary education and training. As the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) reports, high-risk students are eight to ten times less likely to drop out if they enroll in CTE programs.
CTE programs prepare students for postsecondary education and training that are vital for our nation’s economic success. As workers retire and technology advances, the gap between open positions and workers qualified to fill them will continue to widen, and skilled workers with CTE training will be in high demand. According to Georgetown University, the U.S. economy will create 46.8 million job openings by 2018, including 13.8 million replacement positions produced when workers retire.
As chair of the Industry Workforce Needs Council (IWNC), a group of U.S. business leaders striving for improved alignment between education and industry, I can personally attest to the impact the “skills gap” has had on U.S. businesses like Lockheed Martin, Siemens, Trane, and Caterpillar. These IWNC member companies and others are focusing their efforts to expand programs like CTE that are vital to their future workforce and help enhance the overall image of CTE and career opportunities.
In the case of WTHS, training opportunities are provided in the form of internships and cooperative education jobs, which the school’s 1,400 students participate in as part of the 24 technical programs offered by the school. Students can even earn industry-recognized national certifications. As a result, graduation rates of Worcester’s seven public high schools, including WTHS, have increased for the fifth consecutive year. Following the 2012-2013 school year, 77% of WTHS graduates went on to higher education, 18% joined the workforce, and 3% entered the military.
How can we begin addressing the skills gap? Not only do we need to start by encouraging today’s students—the workforce of the future—to stay in school, but we also need to make available the CTE programs that will prepare them for further postsecondary education and the workforce. After all, research shows that education and training beyond high school will be required for at least two-thirds of job openings by 2018; certificates, associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and master’s degrees along with real-world skills will be necessary. CTE programs engage students with a combination of academic and real-world technical skills and experiences, preparing them to meet the requirements of the nation’s workforce.
To lend your support to the mission of maintaining these critical skill development programs for our future employees, contact the IWNC at contact@iwnc.org.