February 11, 1998
Vocational education celebrates its success
By Eric Dick
Herald editor
"What do you think of when you hear, vocational education?"
Phil Wills returned this question when asked about National Vocational Education Week, which is now under way. Wills, a 19-year counselor with the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District Career-Tech Center, says people have the wrong idea about vocational education (a term itself that has been corrected to "career-technical education").
Some people erroneously believe vocational education, or career-technical education, is the catchall for students who settle at the bottom of the class, Wills said. According to the stereotype, students not up to snuff for college learn to be productive workers of society through vocational education. "But it also categorizes kids that that is all they can do. If you can't go to college, this is where you go. But that's not really true," said Wills during a school volleyball tournament Monday, one of several events this week to celebrate and promote vocational education.
The Career-Tech Center does provide hands-on career training for 11th- and 12th-graders (and a few adults) in the five-county area. Auto body repair teaches auto body repair. Computer aided drafting and design teaches computer aided drafting and design. In real life, students need to know this curriculum.
But vocational education offers more. It is an advanced placement class for college or advanced training for the workplace.
Statistics show that about 35 percent of vocational education graduates continue on to further their education. Thirteen Career-Tech Center programs even qualify for advanced placement in colleges such as Ferris State University and Northwestern Michigan College.
Take Wills' two children, for instance. Paul, who graduated in the computer aided drafting and design program, just finished his master's degree in architecture. Beth Ann, also a Career-Tech Center graduate, went on to earn a bachelor's degree in business. Noted Wills: "I can go back and see all kinds of graduates that went on like my two kids."
For those who forgo college, vocational education provides specialized training employers look for. The trades now are far removed from their simpler past. "You can't be a backyard mechanic anymore," said Rich Mitter, a 15-year teacher consultant at the center. "It's gotten a lot more technical."
In fact, businesses partner with the center to ensure a highly skilled work force, especially now during a tight labor market brought on by record-low unemployment. "Businesses and individuals are looking at your people a lot differently than they used to," Career-Tech Center principal Dean Shipman said. "They look at them as a natural resource."
As a result, vocational education continues to reinvent itself to meet employers' needs and expectations. Vocational education, perhaps quicker than its traditional-classroom counterpart, changes with the times. "We're market driven," Shipman explained matter-of-factly.
Further refining vocational education is a new emphasis on academics. Welding students, for instance, must master the skill but also explain, in written reports, theory and processes common to welding. "A lot of kids groaned about that at first but this was a few years ago and now it's well under way," Mitter said.
Thus vocational education is prospering. Employers want more of the highly skilled workers. Colleges want more of the driven, focused students. "Career-technical (education) is kind of the place to be right now," Shipman said.
National Vocational Education Week is celebrating this success. At the Career-Tech Center, events included a community luncheon Tuesday, where more than 50 area business leaders and school board members toured the Parsons Road facility.
The tour was expected to promote the Career-Tech Center, but to a measurable extent it does not suffer from a lack of awareness. Enrollment at the 22-year-old center has grown 36 percent in five years, from about 800 to more than 1,000, Shipman said. "We're sort of winning the war on awareness."
Still, the number of residents unfamiliar with the center surprises educators. "We keep hearing the same thing, 'Wow, I didn't know this was here," Shipman said. "We have 1,088 students from a five-county area and so many people still don't know we're here."