Career and Tech Ed Classes Give Tyler High School Students a Leg Up
career and technology education program, dr. joe garrison, education, jobs, robert e. lee high school, tyler independent school district,
Gone are the old days of “Voc Ed‚” with less-than-rigorous courses like wood shop and typing. Today’s high school students are studying topics like marketing dynamics and vision care technology – part of the Tyler Independent School District’s Career and Technology Education program.
Sure‚ they can still learn welding or how to make a dress. But in a high-tech world‚ with an increasingly global economy‚ students also need tools to compete and excel in a wide variety of work environments.
“We’re trying to train people to enter the workforce‚ and it’s a lot more complicated than it used to be‚” says Dr. Joe Garrison‚ director of assessment and auxiliary services – including the Career and Technology Education program – for Tyler ISD.
“Businesses are demanding highly skilled workers. There’s hardly a job out there that doesn’t interface with technology‚ so what we’re trying to do now is marry people to their career interests and help them understand the technology that goes along with it.”
Tyler’s program is divided into seven broad areas of study: Agricultural Science‚ Business‚ Family/Consumer Science‚ Marketing Education‚ Technology Education‚ Trade and Industrial Education‚ and Health Science. Within those areas‚ students can still make a bookshelf or learn to weld‚ says Garrison‚ but they can also explore ranch management‚ computer-aided drafting‚ culinary arts‚ business financial services‚ early childhood professions and health science technology‚ among other career sequences.
More than 95 percent of TISD high school students take a career and technology education course at some point in their four years‚ but nearly 30 percent – and the number is growing – are enrolled in “course sequences‚” courses designed to be taken together. Most courses are “articulated‚” enabling students to earn junior college credit.
“We have six-year tech prep plans that extend into junior college and college and beyond‚” says Garrison. “How far you go depends on how much you want to do. We want to help students know they have options and help them get to where they want to go.”
Story by Laura Hill
Photo by Antony Boshier
