CTE History Today
and Tomorrow
What I would like to see written in the history books about
today’s CTE (College and Technical Education) environment is that it has
continued to evolve in positive ways and that it remains relevant and fresh. I would like to read that is has become a
mainstream way to approach education versus the traditional “optional” approach
to preparing students for the next big step in their lives. CTE has made great
strides in the right direction as current history books have pointed out, but it
should be always open to change. Just as we discovered and discussed in our
last class, CTE is no longer recognized as just “vocational” classes for those
students who traditionally would not be successful in their attempt to be
accepted into a secondary educational institution. CTE is a successful tool for
all students to take advantage of!
History has shown us the relevancy of vocational training to
meet the demands of our ever changing economic climates. History has also shown
us that it has had to “grow up” or change to meet these demands. Our current
technology evolution continues to support the need CTE training in all fields.
As new CTE teachers, we are seeing this first hand! An example for me is that on
an almost weekly basis in our school we have community business representatives
visit and the message is the same: “We have jobs but we need educated and trained
people”. They are not looking for just the traditional college graduate but for
the skills trained graduate as well. Current media sources have reported that
indeed, CTE training is even more relevant in today’s markets and that these
types of programs are producing students that are readily employed in numbers
that out-number the traditional college graduates!
My final thought is that I as I stated earlier, CTE is relevant
and important today and should continue to be so in the future. What I would
like future history books to state is that it is the mainstream method of
education along with the academics and more importantly that we finally got it
right!
Theresa, I like the way you said this. This is what I was trying to say! In our last online session (of what I heard), I was surprised at the thought process of those who put the Acts into place. It doesn't take much time for us to get away from what was put into place originally. It seems with every Act, they recognized a significant need for CTE. It has truly evolved with the workforce. Finally getting it right would be that CTE is widely accepted and encouraged. I struggle with why people don't see it for the benefit that it is. Employers and (CTE) educators are the majority of the believers. I think the students (maybe more so in hindsight) also see the importance of CTE. This makes me appreciate more and more the efforts that are being taken through legislation.
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