Day in the Life at Autry Tech
Autry Celebrates CareerTech Week

By Tania Warnock,
Autry Tech

He’s the mechanic who put new brakes on your car, keeping you and your children safe on the highway.

She is the nurse that resuscitated your mother when she quit breathing on the hospital table.

He owns the air conditioning company that came out in the heat of summer when your unit quit working. They are all graduates of Oklahoma’s CareerTech system.

“You’d be hard pressed to go through life without coming into contact with CareerTech,” said Jim Strate, superintendent at Autry Technology Center. “The system has a profound impact on all of us, whether we realize it or not.”

Autry is one of 29 technology centers in Oklahoma.

“When you need a plumber you’ll likely turn to a CareerTech graduate. When you eat the best meal you have ever eaten, there is a good likelihood that the chef who cooked it went through a Culinary Arts program. When your computer breaks down, the technician who fixes it will probably be a graduate of a CareerTech business and information technology or electronics technology program,” Strate said.

The shear number of Oklahomans enrolling in CareerTech classes makes its reach massive, Strate said. More than 260,000 Oklahomans enrolled in CareerTech progams last year. Over 10,000 of those individuals where served at Autry. But numbers aren’t the only indication of the success of the system.

“It is fitting that this year’s CareerTech week motto was, ‘The Path to Success,’” Strate said, “because we really believe that we are that path. Our mission is preparing Oklahomans for the workplace. If they aren’t successful once they get there, then we have failed them and we’ve failed our state. That simply isn’t an option for us, so each day we strive to point our students down the path that gets them to where they want to go.”

That path might lead to a full-time program at Autry, Strate said, or it may be that a person needs additional certification and can get that through one of the tech center’s adult and career development classes.

“The point is for many Oklahomans, the path to success leads to their local technology center.”

The Association for Career and Technical Education research shows that many of the country’s fastest-growing occupations require the technical skills taught in CareerTech education programs. Research also shows that among high school graduates entering the workforce, those with a technical education background earn more than those without this advantage.

“You don’t have to decide between CareerTech and college,” Strate said. “A relationship exists between the two. In fact in many cases you can attend Autry and receive high school and college credit simultaneously.

And CareerTech isn’t just for high school students. While the full-time programs are the foundation of the system, business and industry also benefit from the services we offer. Services such as customized training and consulting, small business management, agriculture business management, government bid assistance, Training for Industry Program funding and New and Existing Industry funding.

“Over the last five years, Autry has helped to facilitate the allocation of more than $630,000 to Garfield County business for training and expansion needs,” Strate said. “That benefited everyone in our community. Beyond that, businesses told us that they saved nearly $2 million by utilizing Autry’s training services.”

“The strength of our system lies in its diversity to serve not only high school students, but unemployed as well as underemployed adults and business and industry,” Strate said. “ So whether you have personally experienced the benefits of our system or have seen the indirect benefits through the personal or professional growth of someone you know, CareerTech’s benefits are undeniable.”