Free Essay Example - Career Technical Education

Career technical education (CTE) is an educational program comprising of several courses that incorporate primary academic know-how with professional and technical knowledge to enhance the transition of learners to post-secondary education and employment by increasing their preparedness. Thus, CTE has the capability of equipping students with a comprehensive educational experience that boosts their academic excellence and facilitates in developing of interest towards a specific career (Dougherty, 2016). Learners have an opportunity of realizing their passion and hence pursue post-secondary training per their interests, which results in better performance in their jobs.

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The 21st century has the characteristic of dynamism due to the rampant technological changes brought forth by employing creativity and innovation in the organizations to increase their competitive advantage in the industry and ensure their sustainability. Thus, it is fundamental for learners to undergo educational training that equips them with both soft and technical skills to enhance their suitability for the job market. The modern workforce requires competent workers who have similar academic qualifications comprising excellent critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and communication skills. Such techniques are vital in the career world as well as in colleges and other higher learning institutions.

Thus, it is clear that CTE aids in ensuring the excellent performance of students in colleges and universities as the skills acquired to enhance their understanding of the courses they chose to pursue. The programs under CTE play the role of enabling learners to create their passion, boost their confidence, and empower them to excel in their studies. Besides, these technical skills are useful at the workplace as they enable employees to deal with the challenges they face while running the organizational operations as well as to seize the opportunities that may arise and are beneficial to the organization. The CTE training has the necessary infrastructure and capacity required to equip learners of all ages with the relevant skills to ensure their prosperity in the dynamic world marketplace.

Career technical education is significant in the 21st century as it not only equips learners with educational skills but also prepares them to be adaptable in the job markets by ensuring that they have relevant lifelong career skills. Students who undergo career technical education have a high competitive advantage in the employment industry as many employers prefer recruiting them, as they contribute to a positive return on the investment. Apprenticeship is the foundation of vocational education as it is the practical way through which skills were passed from one generation to the other as a society. The CTE does not only teach career-oriented classes to the learners but also gives them a chance to learn through apprenticeships, internships, and in-school programs created to enhance their readiness.

Evolution of career technical education

Vocational education emerged in 1900 as a response mechanism to the expanding industrial era, which was characterized by extensive use of technology and machines that would make work more manageable in the industries. Usage of machines and specialized equipment in the firms required individuals who had the comprehension of how to operate them to ensure they were effective in increasing the level of production. The core intent of introducing vocational training was to train people and ensure that they have job-specific skills to facilitate specialization in the industries (Hampf & Woessmann, 2017). Having a specialized workforce would ensure that they are competent in the distinct duties assigned them, and they will deliver high levels of performance, which is essential in increasing the level of production to meet the needs of the economy. More so, the job-specific training would ensure that capitalists cut down on the costs of labor by having one or a few individuals run the machinery and equipment and record-high levels of production. Vocational education played a significant role in steering economic growth and development in the 20th century. The first federal legislation concerned with the provision of funds that will support technical-based educational training was passed in 1917 (Gordon & Schultz, 2020). In the 21st century, the nation embraced CTE, which replaced vocational education, and it was incorporated in high schools.

The present-day CTE programs are a product of the vocational and technical programs adopted in the twentieth century. However, educators in the 20th century had the belief that there was no relationship between preparing students to join college and preparing them for future careers. Thus, the two pieces of training undertook different paths. Despite having its root in vocational education, CTE has undergone several changes to refine it and enhances its capability of satisfying the dynamic demands of the global economy. The educational programs under the CTE at the secondary, post-secondary, and adult levels ensure that learners undergo extensive educational training for the different careers such as hospitality, law enforcement, biomedical/ health care, information technology, engineering, renewable energy, nanotechnology, among others. These careers require that students acquire practical knowledge as they are hands-on jobs, which facilitates the need for career technical education.

The adoption of innovation to sustain the competitive advantage in a capitalist economy, and to maintain the spirit of entrepreneurship made the United States a robust economy. However, the use of technology brought opportunities and challenges that required the development of new techniques for dealing with the difficulties and exploiting new chances. Besides, the robust economy has experienced a flattening globe and brought fiscal policies.

Leaders of the Profession in the Early Stages

Samuel Chapman Armstrong is the ideological father of vocational education in African-American as he was the founder of Hampton Institute that offered vocational training among the slaves. The institute focused on addressing matters of racial, economic, and social interactions that encouraged the learners to embrace the attribute of hard work to become subservient laborers (Forster, Bol & Van de Werfhorst, 2016). Booker T. Washington was the best student of Chapman Armstrong, and he strongly subscribed to the ideal teachings of his mentor. Also, in 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt gave an address to Congress, where he encouraged schools to transform to ensure that they have the capability of offering agricultural education in regions that practiced farming and rearing of livestock and industrial, educational training in the locations that had establishments of factories. Later in 1910, there was the formation of a powerful team that focused on reinforcing governmental funding to vocational education.

F. J. Keller is one of the notable proponents of vocational education, and he held that it was a way of living one’s life. His firm standing was that the educators had the responsibility of not only instilling the specific skills to the learners but also educating them on how to act and live in the community and their workplaces. According to Keller, the first form of vocational education was practiced by the monks in the 7th century as they were teaching each other the techniques necessary for teaching and researching, among other significant life lessons that are effective in leading a productive life in the monastery.

In 1916, the government of the United States abolished child labor by passing legislation that limited children to learn trade hands-on. In an attempt to aid the factories, find a competent workforce, and to enable the schools to handle the growing student bodies, many high schools in the U.S. started providing vocational education programs. Children could no longer learn through apprenticeship due to child labor law. Vocational education in high schools would aid in imparting hands-on skills to the learners and enhance their viability in the job market.

Impact and Sustainability of the Profession

Many people have embraced the CTE due to its ability to create a competent workforce that is specially tailored for the distinct jobs in the market. CTE ensures that students undergo the training that equips them with the skills that match the demands of the labor market in the dynamic world as they transit to post-secondary education. Thus, students who fail to pursue post-secondary training benefit from CTE by acquiring hands-on skills that are essential in the job market (Gottfried & Plasman, 2018). The internships give the learners experience of how activities are undertaken in the real world and also equips them with the relevant soft skills.

More so, CTE has the capability of enhancing the academic performance of the students as it increases their passion and interest, which motivates them to improve their engagement in learning (Dougherty, 2016). The learners have the opportunity to exploit and utilize their potential skills on a public platform, which increases their confidence in education. These students have high chances of attending classes due to the motivation acquired when learning technical skills.

CTE has a profound impact on the economic success of the nation as it can meet the existing needs and anticipate the future demands of the economy. Also, it plays a substantial role in the design of policies and their execution by creating cooperative connections between economic development, education, and workforce development. Modern organizations strive to gain a competitive advantage in the industry and thus invest heavily in research and innovation to increase performance and attain high levels of profits and revenues. The policies and programs formulated by the management are usually innovative and require a quick response, which implies that they have the attribute of flexibility in their execution. The principles used in such policies typically have an international aspect, comprise both technical and academic content, and are robust in transforming the organization. Thus, they require diligence and extensive knowledge in their execution to ensure that the organization achieves its set objectives. The industry has a high demand for employees who have higher education and can employ creative thinking, especially when making new commodities that will meet the changing requirements of the customers.

The sustainability of career and technical education in the nation is assured by the increase in legislation that allows for funding of the program. Many states have embraced this system of learning as they have witnessed the benefits it has on the students in making them suitable for the rapidly changing labor market. The increase in the adoption of technology and innovation in the world has prompted the CTE to create new programs as the demands in the job market change. Thus, CTE keeps on refining its programs to ensure that they graduate competent students. Besides, there has been a scholarship in CTE that encourages learners who cannot afford the education to apply and access it at a lower cost. Also, many centuries have formulated rules and legislations that govern CTE, where most of them concern the funding that the government should extend in support of CTE (Theobald et al., 2017). Such funds are used in the construction of the learning institution, purchase of equipment, and machinery, among others.