PREPARING STUDENTS FOR HEALTH CARE, FINANCE, EDUCATION
Once upon a time, vo-tech schools were the training ground for blue-collar careers: auto mechanics, carpenters, electricians, plumbers and welders. That’s still true, but the range of career fields has broadened. Not only are health care fields popular, but so are newer additions to the curriculum, like information technology, finance and even education.
Also, vo-tech schools are encouraging their students to follow what once were considered nontraditional paths.
“More females are going into auto body. At one of our grade levels, it’s almost 50- 50,” says Hayes, the Delcastle principal. “And we’re encouraging more males to consider areas like surgical tech and dental assisting.”
In recent years, vo-tech officials have begun paying more attention to what postsecondary schooling will look like, recognizing that there are many job opportunities in fields that don’t require a four-year degree — or more, Jones says. Good examples, he says, are careers in health care, information technology and even business.
While vo-tech schools have historically aligned their legacy offerings — auto repair and building trades, for example — with employers’ requirements, now they’re working more closely with colleges to synchronize their curriculums so students who need a two-year degree or other post- high school certification can transition easily into a college setting, Jones says.
At Howard High School, Principal Kyle Hill says the most popular program is the Academy of Business and Finance, which prepares students for a variety of jobs that don’t require a four-year college degree, including work as bookkeepers, customer service representatives, payroll clerks, bank tellers, account clerks, credit analysts, financial product representatives, and in insurance. Students can earn a Principles of Banking certification through the American Institute of Banking.
Another popular new offering at all the state’s vo-tech schools are the teacher academies, which help prepare students for careers in either early childhood or K-12 education.
“We’re a minority majority school, and there’s a national teacher shortage and a shortage of educators of color,” says Hill. “We’d like to leave our footprint on both these issues.”
Students in the teacher academies, and in many other vo-tech programs, have the opportunity to earn college credits as well by taking “dual-enrollment” classes that are part of their course requirements.
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Clifton HayesPrincipal of Delcastle Technical High School[/caption]
Most dual-enrollment classes are the result of partnerships with Delaware Technical Community College or Wilmington University, vo-tech administrators say. Typically, the colleges train high school teachers to teach these classes. Depending on the academic program, dual-enrollment classes can
help high school students accumulate up to a year’s worth of college credits while earning their high school diploma, Hill says.
The dual-enrollment opportunities compensate for one thing the vo-tech schools acknowledge that they’re short on: the Advanced Placement classes offered at virtually every comprehensive high school and charter school. POLYTECH and Sussex Tech offer a few AP classes; New Castle County Vo-Tech doesn’t offer any, sticking to the traditional meat-and-
potatoes academic subjects with a few honors classes available.
“The way we look at it,” Jones says, “our career programs are our AP classes.”
