By Phil Berkenbile, Ed. D.
State Director of Career and Technology Education

CareerTech Graduates Impact State's Economy

This month is the perfect time during National Career and Technical Education Month to demonstrate the benefits of Career and Technology Education in Oklahoma. Schools around the country are celebrating with a variety of different activities to demonstrate the learning and career connections with CTE programming. While everyday we see the positive results CareerTech delivers for learners, businesses and communities, the general public often does not.

To help Oklahomans realize their return on investment, the department, technology centers and OkATE have launched an advertising campaign with the theme, “Elevating Our Economy.” The campaign, which began Feb. 1, is designed to position Oklahoma’s CareerTech system as a leader in education, economic and community development for the state. It is a multi-media approach with outdoor, radio and print ads primarily in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas.

Using research from the economic impact study conducted by Mark Snead, director of the Center for Applied Economic Research at Oklahoma State University, and data from the department several key messages are being delivered during the campaign’s initial two phases. Phase one focuses on CareerTech’s economic impact. Key messages are “Oklahoma CareerTech graduates annually add $2 billion to the state’s economy” and “Oklahoma’s CareerTech helped increase profitability for more than 6,300 state companies last year.”

Theme of the second phase is “Elevating Careers.” Key messages for the second phase are “50 percent of Oklahoma high school students take CareerTech classes” and “Oklahoma CareerTech students earned 30,000 college credit hours.”

I encourage you to check out the Website www.elevatingoklahoma.com and take the opportunity to tell those in your community about how CareerTech makes a difference in the lives of individuals and in our state’s economic vitality.

As the tagline for the advertising materials says, “Your sound investment . . . CareerTech’s solid return.”