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TechConnect Programs Skyrocket
By Erin Portman
Oklahoma Department of CareerTech
CareerTech's TechConnect programs have skyrocketed from 10 to 275 across Oklahoma in only three years. Last year, 7,715 students were enrolled in TechConnect programs.
The Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education piloted this new program for ninth and tenth grade students three years ago with 10 high schools participating in partnership with their local technology centers. Today, there are 275 TechConnect programs in local school districts across the state.The program is designed to link technology education programs, traditionally offered to sixth through eighth grade students, with the technical preparation programs offered to juniors and seniors at local technology centers.
"Students have the opportunity to choose three content areas from 16 career clusters that range from architecture and communications to health science and information technology," said Larry Bullock, trade and industrial education program specialist at the state CareerTech agency.
TechConnect is structured so that students spend a semester in each of the three courses gaining foundational experiences in the ninth grade and the first semester of the tenth grade. During the last semester of the tenth grade, students pick one of the three completed content areas to fulfill a capstone course focusing on all aspects of the industry. This includes a work-based learning project.
"CareerTech's technology education programs provides students in the sixth through eighth grade with daily, hands-on experiences," said Jay Evans, technical program supervisor at the state CareerTech agency. "This allows students to focus on becoming technologically literate while exploring career opportunities and mapping out which educational path to take.
"When a student becomes a junior in high school they can attend a technology center to receive training in an area of interest. Those programs are designed for students in the last two years of high school and adults."
That leaves ninth and tenth grade students out of the loop.
"TechConnect is a program designed to transition ninth and tenth grade students to the next level of career development," Evans said. "The program gives those students a chance to experience and develop foundational skills in career options at a time students are considering career goals."
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Students listen as instructor Kenny Carmack explains technical aspects of the BEST Robotics design. The Fairview TechConnect students have competed at the state competition for five years, placing in the top two and advancing to nationals each year. |
Designed as a two-year program, TechConnect can be taken in a one-period format referred to as "TechConnect" or a two-period format, called "TechConnect Two" that contains expanded laboratory experiences
A student drills on components of the robot for competition. Each team is given a box of materials to use to build the robot. The team has six weeks to put the robot together and have it working. |
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"Students participating in TechConnect are not being trained to build a house," Bullock said. "We simply want the students to have the appropriate academic foundation and basic employability and technical skills necessary to transition into a fulltime technical program their junior and senior years."
TechConnect instructors at the junior and senior high schools work closely with the local technology center instructional staff and administration to ensure a successful transition.
"The students have established bonds with instructors at the tech centers," Evans said. "Both high schools and technology centers benefit from those relationships. Instructors at technology centers share ideas and equipment with teachers at the high schools."
Fairview Public Schools partner with Northwest Technology Center in TechConnect and TechEd programs and Cheryl Woods, Tech Prep Coordinator at Northwest Tech.
"TechEd and TechConnect allows students to see connections between the school and technology center," Woods said.
Instructors are seeing progress in students involved in TechConnect, according to Kenneth Carmack, technology education instructor at Fairview."Our students have a better opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of job related skills in business and industry," Carmack said. "In western Oklahoma we have a big economic sector of agriculture, manufacturing and information technology. Our TechConnect programs focus on these areas so that students will stay in northwestern Oklahoma when they get ready to settle down and raise a family."
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TechConnect innovators also see the advantage of programs starting in the sixth grade.
"Schools are seeing the benefit of having a TechConnect program with more wanting to implement a program in their district every year," Bullock said. "We are putting together the seamless education we have talked about for years. While students move to the TechConnect level, then onto programs at a technology center or stay at their high school in marketing education or agricultural education for more specific skills training as juniors or seniors, they have learned soft skills that started with technology education in the sixth grade." |
