It's Career AND Technical Education.

It's Career AND Technical Education. Since this is my first column of 2000 I think it's it's?1. Contraction of it is.2. Contraction of it has. See Usage Note at its.it'sit is or it hasit'sbe ~have appropriateto focus on the future of career and technical education. As you mayhave noticed, we have begun to feature articles about the future of ourenterprise and the varying perspectives that members and others have. Recently Ken Hoyt Hoyt can refer to:Places Hoyt, Colorado, United States Hoyt, Kansas, United States People LaMarr Hoyt, baseball player Lance Hoyt, professional wrestler Sam Hoyt, New York State Assembly urged us to make a choice between career andtechnical education and to create clearer distinctions between what isoffered at the secondary level and what is offered at the postsecondarylevel (October October:see month. 1999). This month Richard Lynch summarizes the findingsof his report for the U.S. Office of Vocational and Adult Education The Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) is a subdivision of the United States Department of Education. OVAE falls under the supervision of the Undersecretary, who oversees policies, programs and activities related to vocational and adult education, postsecondary ,urging us to elevate el��e��vate?tr.v. ele��vat��ed, ele��vat��ing, ele��vates1. To move (something) to a higher place or position from a lower one; lift.2. To increase the amplitude, intensity, or volume of.3. career and technical education to the needs of the21st century (page 58). One thing is certain about the future of career and technicaleducation--everyone has an opinion about where it should head. This isgood. All career and technical educators--from classroom teachers tosuperintendents, from guidance counselors guidance counselorChild psychology A school worker trained to screen, evaluate and advise students on career and academic matters to teacher educators--shouldspend some time reflecting on what we must do to ensure the long-term Long-termThree or more years. In the context of accounting, more than 1 year.long-term1. Of or relating to a gain or loss in the value of a security that has been held over a specific length of time. Compare short-term. success of our programs. We have an enormous opportunity to be the providers of the mostimportant kind of education in the next century. There is no doubt thatbusiness and industry will continue to need highly educated and skilledemployees. We have the opportunity to provide them with graduates whoare prepared for the careers they have to offer. What do employers want and need in the people they hire? In all my meetings with business people from a wide variety ofcompanies, I have found that the kind of employees they seek have skillsin three major areas. First, they have strong academic and thinkingskills. Second, they have strong technical skills in the field in whichthey will work. Third, they have employability skills such as theability to work in teams and communicate effectively. This trio of academic, technical and employability skills are thefoundation every student needs to enter a competitive labor market labor marketA place where labor is exchanged for wages; an LM is defined by geography, education and technical expertise, occupation, licensure or certification requirements, and job experience . Eachcan be considered a leg of a three-legged stool--remove any one leg andthe stool stool(stldbomacl) feces.rice-water stools? the watery diarrhea of cholera.silver stool collapses. Students without a balance of skills in all threeareas will find it difficult to be successful in their careers. There are some who say that students should not receive jobtraining or specific skills for employment at the high school level,that this type of training is better left to postsecondary institutions.But this argument ignores the 50 percent of students who will notcontinue their education after high school. What we need in career and technical education is balance at bothlevels. Students are capable of learning--and want to learn--technicaljob skills at the high school level and this should be encouraged. Bythe same token, high school students must have a solid grounding inacademics and know how to learn so they can continue learning andupgrading their skills after high school, whether they go to college orstraight into the workforce. We must provide students with a solidcareer AND technical education to keep pace with the opportunities ofthe 21st century.