Making career and technical education a priority

A commentary by Tony Evers, State Superintendent of Public Instruction and Dan Clancy, president, Wisconsin Technical College System.

There's a lot to talk as we observe Career and Technical Education Month in Wisconsin. Schools and technical colleges around the state are reaching out this month to share their news.

More and more young people are getting the chance to prepare themselves for a good career by taking technical college classes while still in high school.

That's because our public PK-12 schools and technical colleges are forming more partnerships to deliver huge benefits to students with zero or little cost to their parents.

In fact, the number of high school students who earned technical college credits through the most common type of dual credit program more than doubled in just five years, between 2006 and 2011, according to our latest data.

There are high schools right now in Wisconsin where kids get to engineer and manufacture their own products in state-of-the-art facilities, with expert guidance.

Some of our students even graduate from high school with not one, but two, diplomas - because they were able to complete, in high school, the academic requirements of both high school and a degree in a field like nursing or automotive technology

These kinds of success stories happen when the community or local business partners generously step up to support our kids' and communities' future.

This help is especially important when recent budget cuts have negatively impacted career and technical education (CTE) programs and course offerings at the same time we work to expand these opportunities into more schools, technical colleges, and communities.

Meanwhile, many CTE courses themselves, from manufacturing to food science to information technology, have evolved, becoming much more scientific and rigorous. When they meet a certain benchmark, students can actually earn science credit for them.

Also evolving is our understanding of the knowledge and skills needed for students to be career and college ready as well as those that match the needs of employers, now and in the future.

We've discovered that academic needs for both are really very similar - every student needs important skills like adaptability, critical thinking, responsibility, creativity. Add to those the skills CTE offers, and you've got some very employable high school graduates.

People are out there, ready to tell stories of how CTE helped them succeed.

Take a Wisconsin student named Rachel, who appears in a video we've put online for CTE Month. Her CTE classes led to her pursuing a master's degree in civil engineering.

On another video you'll meet Austin, who is deeply "grateful" for the opportunity to find, while still in a high school, a career he can imagine sticking with for the rest of his life: firefighting and emergency medical services.

And then there's Jacob, who changed his life goals after getting the chance to try out, in high school, what became his career: machining.

To make planning easier for students, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Technical College System, and six other partners now offer a website, http://www.wicareer pathways.org/students.

This website allows students to interactively explore the world's career pathways, learn about their own aptitudes and interests, and plan for the education it will take to work in a field they like.

It comes down to this: CTE opportunities in PK-12 and postsecondary education are helping a great many students find their way to good-paying jobs they enjoy.

If all of us - schools, communities, and businesses - keep making CTE a priority, even more will do so tomorrow. That helps our future graduates, their families, employers, and our communities.

And that's what CTE is all about.