RISD REPORT
Decisions regarding future careers can be challenging for all students.
A variety of options at the high school level can help students and parents in making decisions that can have a major impact on the lives of our students.
This week Britina Pesak has the opportunity to share with us how the Rockdale ISD Career and Technical Education (CTE) program is fulfi lling this responsibility, and in the process, provides a more accurate view of her program and what it has to offer:
“Only kids who aren’t college-bound go into the Career and Technical fi elds. I want my kid to go to college.”
This stigma, and altogether inaccurate perception of the CTE programs of today, is keeping students from earning a unique competitive advantage in today’s workforce economy.
Students who enroll in courses aligned with their career interests beginning their freshman year are able to take a coherent sequence of CTE courses throughout all four years of high school while still engaging in all academic courses and other activities such as athletics and fi ne arts if they so choose. By following a program of study, program completers graduate high school with a wide range of opportunities and choices.
The idea that CTE restricts students’ plans and narrows their opportunities is simply false.
In fact, the opposite is true. CTE offers early career exploration to help maximize the learning experience.
The purpose of this early exploration is to help students examine career options so they can make wise and purposeful choices about their future investments.
Every career cluster and most job opportunities require varying levels of education, from a high school diploma with on the job training to post graduate degrees.
CTE offers a competitive advantage for all of these students.
Students headed off to college immediately after graduation will already have marketable skills, as well as a head start on the material and the knowledge that this is the correct fi eld for them.
Students ready to head into the workforce after college with a CTE background will also have an advantage because they have a clear picture of what the industry is looking for and what they need to do to be successful. CTE truly sets students up for success.
Over the past 30 years, we have changed how we prepare students for their future.
The vocational education of the past may have prepared students for a single specifi c skill, but the modern CTE of today focuses on broader technical skill attainment, employability, and rigorous course work to raise the standard of achievement.
The ultimate advantage in today’s economy is at the intersection of academic knowledge and technical skills, which is exactly where you will fi nd Career and Technical Education (CTE). Happy CTE Month. Please contact me, Britina Pesak, Rockdale ISD Director of CTE at bpesak@rockdaleisd.net or 512-430-6027 if you would like to fi nd out more about any of our CTE programs.
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