By Phil Berkenbile, Ed. D.
State Director of Career and Technology Education
(From State Director Phil Berkenbile’s Aug. 2, 2005 Summer Conference speech.)

This is such an exciting time to be in the Oklahoma CareerTech system!

Our enrollments are up.

Membership in our student organizations is better than ever.

Our system is evolving at a faster rate than ever before.

Our state funding is increasing.

And we are improving an already great CareerTech system by building on existing strengths, developing important new partnerships, and expanding the scope of our influence beyond the borders of our state and nation.

This has been a very good year for the CareerTech system. There have been so many great things that have happened. I want to tell you about some of them.

New cooperative alliances were formed between three colleges and three technology centers. These alliances enable our high school students to earn college credit while they’re enrolled in technology center programs. It is now possible for our students to graduate from high school, complete a technology center program, and simultaneously earn college credit.

Twenty more technology centers plan to develop cooperative alliances in the upcoming year. We look forward to these alliances and to seeing more partnerships that will enable students from our CareerTech programs in K-12 schools and technology centers to easily move on to college.

We’ve started pre-engineering academies in seven technology centers, serving almost a hundred sending schools.

Our first design and construction academy is starting this year.

Oklahoma Horizon has been running on OETA since January, and it’s already been “promoted” from its original Saturday morning time slot to its new time at three o’clock every Sunday afternoon.

In 2004 a consortium of Oklahoma colleges and technology centers was awarded a $3million National Science Foundation grant to develop an Advanced Technology Education Center for education and workforce development. This new center is the first of its kind in the country to emphasize the emerging field of digital forensics, making Oklahoma a national model for cyber security and forensics education.

Our Skills Centers division did an economic impact analysis this year and found that for each dollar of state funds invested there is a return of $2.99!

Just last month, the Skills Centers system received a $1million grant to train youthful offenders for careers in metal manufacturing and construction.

Our state agency is currently designing a new student accounting system that will be implemented within the next two years. This system will enable our schools to innovate and offer a more flexible delivery system of career pathways and course combinations.

This year your state staff and technology center representatives participated in international trips to learn more about how the global economy is impacting us in Oklahoma and what we need to do about it. This is so important that we have just assigned a state staff member to work with international partnerships.

Projects are on the drawing board for this year. One is the implementation of a precision agriculture curriculum. Another is a process that enables high school students to easily articulate to a bachelor’s degree in nursing by participating in a sequence of educational programs at a variety of educational institutions.

I’d like to talk for a few minutes about some of the challenges and opportunities we face.

Challenge: The baby boomers are starting to retire and there is a need for workers of all kinds.

Opportunity: The CareerTech system is here to meet that need.

Challenge: America has the largest proportion of highly skilled workers in the world but we also have a very large proportion of low-skilled workers. Many workers lack basic literacy and job-related math skills.

Opportunity: The CareerTech system is here to provide those skills.

Challenge: There are shortages of qualified employees in many highly skilled occupations—from nurses, welders, and teachers to machinists, computer professionals and engineers.

Opportunity: The CareerTech system is here to provide those workers.

Challenge: Global economic competition is confronting every sector of our economy and workforce.

When American companies send their low skill jobs to countries where wages are lower, they create a need here to retrain workers for skilled jobs.

Opportunity: The CareerTech system is here to provide that training.

The mission of the Oklahoma CareerTech system has not changed. It is, and continues to be preparing Oklahomans to succeed in the workforce, in education, and in life. We need to remember our mission, but we also need to build on our strengths and develop NEW ways to convert emerging challenges into exciting new opportunities.

How do we turn those challenges into opportunities?

I believe we have to do two things: First, we must be true to who we are. But we must look around us to see how our world is changing. We must evolve, as a system and as individuals, to meet the needs of the changing workplace and economy. We must RE-INVENT the CareerTech system for the twenty-first century.

I have a vision of what that future will look like. My vision is for an innovative CareerTech system that seeks out new ways to enhance the economic growth of our state and for our people.

We will do that by providing our students with a seamless educational system. There will no longer be the division between preparation for college and preparation for work. Our high school students will be prepared for college and a career.

Our students will have higher levels of literacy and logic and the capability to think critically.

Our students will have the ability to apply what they have learned and analyze the impact.

Our students will have access to programs such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, geospatial, and advanced manufacturing.

Our CareerTech system will be the system of choice and a conduit to high-wage, high-impact careers.

With input from business and industry, we will integrate more rigor and relevance into our curriculum.

We will be the system that economic developers look to for innovation and results.
Our system will respond quickly to industry needs.

The CareerTech approach to education has always been unique. In my vision, our unique approach to learning will evolve to embrace a much wider range of career pathways to meet industry’s needs for future workers.

We will teach skills AHEAD OF THE CURVE to attract new industry to Oklahoma.

With the urgency for change that is needed to grow Oklahoma’s economy, we will rely more heavily on participation from the entire CareerTech system to create dynamic pathways for students, align learning standards in all of our programs, and develop delivery methods that are convenient for the learner.

The future belongs to a highly educated and well-prepared workforce. I believe that the Oklahoma CareerTech system can be a corner post in this state’s future IF we are bold enough to move forward. I look forward to working with you as we create a BOLD, NEW VISION for our system.