Since the 1980s, traditional vocational education programs have
withered in most California high schools. But San Benito High
School has gone against the tide on this trend.
Since the 1980s, traditional vocational education programs have withered in most California high schools. But San Benito High School has gone against the tide on this trend.
For that, we should count ourselves – and our kids – lucky.
Today, San Benito High has one of the largest career technical education programs in the region. It’s also one of the most inclusive. According to the school’s director of educational services, virtually every student at San Benito High takes at least one hands-on technical course during his or her four years there.
All of which makes San Benito High especially well-positioned to take advantage of the growing interest in building bigger, better career technical education programs for students.
Who is interested? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for one. The governor has set aside $500 million in his education spending plan for career tech facilities in California’s high schools. State Superintendent Jack O’Connell, for another. He has proposed an ambitious plan to create 210 new career technical academies across California.
Count Neil Struthers, CEO of the Building and Trades Council of Santa Clara and San Benito counties is in on this, too. Struthers was instrumental in enlisting labor unions and contractors associations to help set up an innovative school-industry program in one San Jose high school that provides an avenue for students to progress from classroom training to paid summer internships to post-graduation union apprenticeships as carpenters, electricians, plumbers and equipment operators. Struthers is advocating for expansion of this program to other high schools in the area and has said he would ultimately like to see it lead also to colleges that would offer bachelor’s degrees to building trades workers who want to move on to construction management or related fields.
Such school-industry partnerships, funded with a mix of public and private money, hold great promise for not only providing real-skills job training for today’s students, but also meeting tomorrow’s very real workforce needs.
Some criticized old-style vocational programs as little more than a convenient place to park students who either weren’t motivated or didn’t have the ability to succeed in an academic setting.
But this is a different educational stream. It recognizes that different kids have different learning styles. It recognizes the value of technical job skill training and provides avenues for entry into specialized, good-paying career fields where there is a demand for workers.
Local school officials have made vocational and technical education a priority in the past. They should aggressively pursue the present opportunities to build on that strength, for the benefit of students and the community as a whole.
