SCHOOL-TO-WORK
TRANSITION OF CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION GRADUATES
Review Article
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Proponents
of the school-to-work movement maintain that the skills and values required by
employers need to be integrated into the agenda and practices of the standard
school curriculum so that upon graduation, students will be able to
successfully transition into and achieve in the labor force. Indeed, this
pragmatic orientation towards education was an impetus for education policy
reform within the past two decades.
This
indictment of Malaysia's schools sent education policy makers down a split
path. For them, gaining the skills required by employers, rather than a college
focused curriculum, was necessary for a smooth transition into the workforce.
The integration of workforce skills into traditional academic courses for both
college bound and non-college bound youth became increasingly viewed as vital
to the health of the domestic economy.
2.0 SCHOOL-TO-WORK
DEBATE
There is one
strategy for improving high school outcomes involves combining college
preparatory coursework with career-technical education (CTE) in the high school
curriculum. The aim is to make high school more meaningful and motivating for
more students, to increase graduation rates, and to prepare graduates for range
of postsecondary options. Furthermore, CTE need to be addressed more.
3.0 WHY NEED SCHOOL-TO-WORK TRANSITION OF CTE?
Much
controversy has arisen over whether high schools should try to prepare all
students for both college and careers, as opposed to separating one group of
students into an academic course of study and placing other students in
vocational programs. For example, proposed increased funding for CTE.
CTE,
we know, address two very important issues; it fulfills the needs of the
workforce and also fulfilled the needs of the students by giving them multiple
pathways to success. A lot of students, it’s very clear, have said that they
are dropping out because they don’t find anything interesting in school, or
they have no interest in going to a four-year college. Therefore, they are
discouraged and drop out because no an alternative offer that interesting to
study. By expanding CTE we are giving those options, such as to become welders,
or chefs, or lab technicians, computer technicians, and the list goes on and
on. Those are all very important professions.
4.0 THE EFFECTS OF CTE AND ACADEMIC
The
effect of combining academic and CTE in high school as a transition has been
studied in various ways. Unfortunately, most of the research does not support
strong inferences about cause and effect. Thus, a particular attention to
studies with stronger designs will be pay, and also refer to other recent
reviews of research on this topic, and will avoid duplicating what has already
been published elsewhere.
Here
the focus on:
(1)
studies using high school transcript data from national surveys;
(2)
A study on academically enriched CTE, using random assignment at the classroom;
(3) research on High
Schools That Work, a large reform network dedicated to combining
college-preparatory academic coursework with rigorous CTE; and
(4)
Evaluations of career academies.
The
studies review supposedly will generally include larger than average
proportions of students from low-income families, whose parents have not
attended college, and who belong to racial or ethnic groups traditionally
under-represented in higher education, because these are the students who have
been disproportionately included in high school vocational or CTE. The studies
reviewed here will include a range of academic and labor market outcomes, which
will especially highlight results pertaining to high school completion.
After
explaining why school-to-work transition of CTE should be expected to motivate students,
the review summarizes reports from students and teachers in these programs, who
frequently do express enthusiasm. However, this kind of evidence is always suspected.
Teachers and students may feel positive about reforms without improvement in
their performance, learning, persistence, or understanding.
The good news is
that the kinds of negative effects academically oriented critics might expect
of schools with occupational themes have not been found. There is no evidence
of lower grades, lower test scores, or lower rates of college-going. A
judicious summary might be that there are no obvious problems in theme-based
education in the contexts in which they have been studied and there is the
potential for substantial improvements in school climate, motivation, and other
outcomes.
5.0 APPROACHES FOR THIS PAPER
In
this paper we focus on high school programs that attempt to combine college
preparation with career-technical education, rather than seeing them as
alternatives. The rationale for this approach rests on three observations.
First, the great majority of high school students say they aspire to get
bachelor’s degrees, at least. Parents also affirm these aspirations. Students
and parents therefore tend to avoid high school programs that do not lead
toward bachelor’s degrees.
Second,
from the beginning of federal support for vocational education, it was defined
as preparation for occupations that do not require a bachelor’s degree. Students
assigned to vocational programs tended to be less affluent, less likely to have
parents who attended college, and more likely to belong to racial, ethnic, or linguistic
minorities who have been under-represented in higher education. This came to be
widely regarded as unfair, and also wasteful because students in these classes
are given less challenge and opportunity to develop their intellectual and
academic capabilities.
Third,
despite the almost universal desire of students to obtain bachelor’s degrees, not
many of them currently accomplishes that goal. If they can learn something in
high school that helps them in the labor market, that would be a benefit.
Gaining work-related competence in high school also can help students pay for
college.
In
short, CTE, by combining with academic in high school can keep students’
options open. This integrated strategy can encourage students to pursue their
college aspirations while providing skills that could be useful if they attend
college or if they leave school without a bachelor’s degree.
Written by,
NORIADAH BINTI
ABDUL KARIM
MP 101406
MASTER OF EDU (
MGMT &ADMIN)
UNIVERSITI
TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
REFFERENCE
1.
Packard W.L, Leach.M, Ruiz L,
Nelson C & DiCocco. H (2012). School-To-Work Transition Of Career And
Technical Education Graduates. The Career Development Quarterly June 2012 Volume
60
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