CTE teachers prep students for college, 21st century jobs

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UFT Vice President Sterling Roberson speaks at a competition where students from 21 high schools presented workable business-plan models for business leaders on Jan. 13 in lower Manhattan.

A Jan. 13 MSNBC report on a survey from Manpower Group, the job placement firm, showed more than half of employers surveyed saying they couldn’t find skilled workers to hire. Even if you allow for the picky employer or a weak economy that slows hiring, there’s still a jobs/skills mismatch, where applicants don’t have the education, training or specialized skills to make themselves marketable.

For too long, college and career readiness was judged narrowly by test scores to show whether remediation was needed. Those tests didn’t judge skill sets such as portfolio creation, certificates in practical fields or experience from internships or skilled work. Tests might gauge whether students are academically proficient but not whether they are skilled, innovative or employable.

That’s one reason why today’s conversations about secondary and college education are about career readiness, too. It’s why the Harvard University Education School’s Pathways to Prosperity report urged “more focus on the development of such 21st century skills as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and communication.”

It’s why President Obama told Congress in 2009 that he was urging “every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship.”

It’s also why Boston’s mayor recently announced plans, reported in the Boston Globe on Jan. 17, to “create a job training institution that aims to help teenagers and adults climb out of poverty and into the middle class.” By day, “it would serve high school students, coupling real-world job skills and rigorous academics” while by night, “adults would take to the same classrooms, workshops, and laboratories to develop skills for the modern workforce.” If the mayor works collaboratively with the Boston Teachers Union, the project should succeed.

In New York, educators in career and technical high schools are already providing not only academic and technical direction, but also employment skills and real-world experience in the working world. They also help students secure internships and job placements.

At the HS of Food and Finance, for example, the school community has partnered with the Food Network in organizing “Restaurant Day,” where employers and educators alike saw students successfully displaying their talents in the culinary arts.

During the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observance, NBC/Universal partnered with a number of CTE schools and UFT members in enabling graphic arts students to shadow mentors at a variety of NBC studios.

Also in January, the Department of Education partnered with accounting firm Deloitte and Touche and with Virtual Enterprises International in sponsoring a competition where students from 21 high schools presented business-plan models for such would-be startups as Chocolicious, Bon Voyage Travel, Vreal magazine, Bing Bang Advertising and 17 other virtual businesses. I was one of the event’s speakers and was highly impressed with the creativity these young people displayed.

UFT members work not only with teen-age students, but also with adults, offering them post-secondary school access and career pathways at adult education programs in schools in economomically disadvantaged areas across the city.

The panoply of careers that CTE grads step into are evident in the evocative names of many of today’s 36 CTE high schools: HS for Engineering, Architecture and Technology, HS for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture, Academy for Health Careers, Rockaway Park High School for Environmental Sustainability and HS for Innovation in Advertising and Media. Students are trained for tomorrow’s jobs today.

And it’s why it makes no sense for the mayor to be targeting CTE schools for closure. Let’s support these schools and help them fulfill their important missions.

What we need is a college- and career- readiness movement for the 21st century, one that ensures lifelong learning for students and adults in navigating the rapidly changing job markets of the future.

Our union’s CTE members are leading the way.