Autry Celebrates CareerTech Week
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 Oklahoma’s 29 tech centers that are celebrating CareerTech
week this week, Feb. 8-14.
“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 is, ‘The
Path to Success,’” Strate said, “because we really believe
that we are that path. Our mission though 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.”
