The future of career and technical education

By ANDREW BARNES
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer

What this story covers
Career and technical education, which teaches students a specific trade or skill in order to help prepare them for the workforce, is a growing sector. Overcoming the stigma that it’s for students who can’t get into a four-year college is the next step.
Why it matters
Students often feel pressured to go to a four-year institution, but there are plenty of other options that are less costly and may be more practical for students who have a specific career in mind. High school counselors face the challenge of working with hundreds of students at a time, making it difficult to cater to each student’s post-secondary needs.

Many students dream of attending a four-year college or university. Randy Young had that dream, but after spending a few semesters on campus realized that dream wasn’t for him.

After high school, Young enrolled at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to study film, a topic about which he’d long felt passionate. However, following his first year, it became clear to him that both the four-year university and studying film were not a good fit.

“I felt like I was just hitting a dead end,” Young said. “I didn’t hate my classes or anything, but I realized pretty quickly that it just didn’t feel right.”

Young felt that not only was film not his true passion, the cost of attending a four-year university had become a burden. He thought he would be better off both financially and emotionally if he took another route.

After talking it over with friends and family, Young decided to leave the university in 2016. Like millions of others students across the country, he decided to turn to a career and technical college in order to pursue his dreams, rather than stay at a traditional four-year university.

He decided to pursue his true passion: making music. However, to turn this into a career, he knew he’d need to receive some form of formal education on the subject in an environment that would let him get hands-on experience. He discovered Omega Studios, an audio engineering program that is part of the growing career and technical education (CTE) sector, which offers students specialized training for a cost that is lower than most traditional colleges.

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CTE is an umbrella term that encompasses many areas of study and methods of instruction all with a common goal: to teach students a specific trade or skill in order to help them prepare for the workforce. Graduates pursue careers as varied as working on the engines of 18-wheelers to cutting and styling hair to being a hospital nursing assistant. While traditional trade schools, such as Lincoln College of Technology and Omega Studios, are considered a part of CTE, there are also many other ways to receive  a career and technical education, such as programs in community colleges and technical high schools.

CTE, known in many quarters as vocational education, has long been stigmatized by parents, college counselors, and others who considered it a low-quality education and pushed students to attend four-year colleges. However, with many college students facing staggering debts and employers looking to hire graduates with specialized skills, CTE has become a viable path. Some high-paying jobs still require a four-year degree at a minimum. Yet CTE has opened doorways for students who may not have seen a four-year university as an option.

Jacob Smith, a 22-year-old from Hagerstown, Maryland, graduated from Washington County Technical High School, a two-year school for juniors and seniors in Washington County, Maryland. During his time here, he studied to be a mechanical propulsion technician at Northrop Grumman.“College costs so much and I didn’t want to be thousands of dollars in debt,” Smith said. “I wanted to go so I could learn a practical skill that I could use for jobs right out of high school.”

The low cost and immediacy of jobs following graduation is a major pull for CTE programs, which give students the knowledge and networking to start working in their field right away.

“I was more prepared for the work world.” Smith said. “It’s pretty much like you go in there and you have a real job.”

This was also the case for Young.

Young began Omega Studios’ audio engineering for the music industry program, a 750-hour program that is meant to prepare students to find jobs in the music recording industry as producers. Suddenly, Young was no longer sitting through lectures to fulfill common core objectives. He was receiving a hands-on education in a recording studio that had recorded such performing greats as Prince, Chuck Berry, Elton John and others.

“I knew almost immediately that I had made the right choice,” Young said. “For once I felt like I was working for something that I really wanted. It was definitely hard work, but all of the work felt like it meant something.”

Experiences like Young’s are common, as trade schools such as Omega Studios exist all across the country.

Many high schools, such as the one Smith attended, have started to incorporate CTE courses into their curricula. According to Jarrod Nagurka, the advocacy and public affairs manager for the Association for Career and Technical Education, 94 percent of high school students will take a CTE class of some form by the time they graduate high school. These high school classes exist to give students a feel for what they may be interested in before they make the decision of what to pursue in their post-secondary education.

Classes can help students avoid being put in situations like Young found himself in at UMBC. High school CTE classes allow students to explore careers and fields that they may have never considered before. Even at the post-secondary level, the exploration of different careers and fields remains a selling point for CTE.

At community colleges, students referred to as “CTE Explorers” take several classes in different CTE areas to see what fits best for them. While students still have to pay for these classes, the cost is considerably cheaper than it would be for that same student enroll at a four-year university. ACTE, an organization made up of roughly 25,000 CTE professionals across the country, last year successfully lobbied for Congressional reauthorization of The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, which provided an additional $1.3 billion in federal funding for CTE programs, which will allow for larger student financial aid and the expansion of CTE programs.

Nagurka said he doesn’t want CTE to be viewed as competing with four-year colleges.

“We have to be careful not to adopt the narrative of ‘four-year universities vs. CTE’,” Nagurka said. “Many students pursue four-year degrees at some point following completing a CTE program. Education translates into further education.”

Young said that after arriving at his first studio, he was prepared to begin working right away in a manner that he doesn’t know if he would have had coming into the workforce straight out of a four-year university.

Now armed with the education provided by his CTE program, Young now dreams of creating his own music with the help of his degree from Omega Studios.

School counselors shape students’ decisions about post-secondary plans

By AARON LIGHTER
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer

As the school year winds down, millions of high school seniors are finalizing their plans for the next few years.

Whether it be a commitment to a two- or four-year college, a trade school or jumping straight into the workforce, the students are making some of the biggest decisions in life.

Helping them along the way are their school career counselors. What kind of advice are counselors giving students as they decide their post-secondary plans?

“One must assist students with self examination about post-secondary pursuits based on real life return on investment,” said Andrew Gossard, a college and career readiness specialist for the Washington County Public Schools System in Maryland. “The main points of post secondary-education are personal maturity, responsibility to oneself and fiscal value in the marketplace.”

Gossard, who helps students at Boonsboro and South Hagerstown High School, preaches the return on investment idea to his students to help them from becoming part of the large number of college students up to their neck in debt.

Last June, Forbes reported that the total student loan debt was $1.52 trillion and the average debt from members of the 2016 graduating class was $37,172. Those numbers are why Gossard attempts to help students make decisions that will be beneficial financially.

“If a student accumulates $150,000 in debt because their ego tells them [they] must go to particular colleges, they simply are foolish,” Gossard said. “I tend to reiterate, ‘Every choice has a price but one can adapt and change as long as economic factors aren’t so severe that it prevents change easily.’”

Patrice Davis, a WCPS career and college counselor at the Washington County Technical High School and Smithsburg High School, emphasizes to students the importance of making a financial smart choice.

“I ask students what interest they have and go from there,” Davis said. “Some students have a plan… Most do not because of parent support, paper work, cost and no interest.”

While Washington County Technical prepares students to work in a field of their choosing, she still likes to encourage them to grow through schooling.

“Give a few more months/years of education, to give you more money,” Davis said. “Many tech areas lead to college. It is explained, they can start out at the community college to help with cost.”

For those who aren’t as equipped for — or interested in — four-year universities, Gossard and Davis recommend other paths. Trade schools and community colleges are giving many students the opportunity to continue their education and a discounted rate compared to four-year institutions.

“Some students whose learning styles are more hands on or visual will benefit from trade schools,” Gossard said. “Trade schools tend to focus on very particular skill sets to accomplish a market demand goal. They can be cost effective due to compressed curriculums focused on a certain goal.”

But it isn’t always easy for career and college counselors like Gossard and Davis to help out.

Counselors face the challenge of helping hundreds of students at a time. This makes it harder for them to get to know the students and what they need in post-secondary education. One way students can make the process easier is to meet with their counselors early on.

“Only by developing relationships with students over time can that assessment be made more accurately,” Gossard said. “This is why I personally believe exploring career paths should start fairly early. The only way to determine proper guidance for these students is again, a personal relationship so that student needs and factors surrounding their choices can be brought to light.”