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By Dr. Phil Berkenbile, Ed.D., State Director |
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Educators nationwide will be celebrating Career and Technical Education Week Feb. 12 –18. This is a time recognize the value of what CareerTech provides to communities in helping individuals and businesses prosper.
Our mission is to “prepare Oklahomans to succeed in the workplace, in education and in life.” We accomplish this by ensuring Oklahoma’s employers in existing and emerging industries have access to a workforce with the knowledge and skills to compete in a global economy. To insure this competitive edge, our state’s CareerTech system must develop innovative training programs. Quite simply, we must expand our services in high schools, at technology centers and in our Skills Centers (programs for those incarcerated.) We are asking the legislature to assist in expanding our services. In high schools, since July 1, 2005 we have provided $615,900 to assist in funding new programs. We have not been able to fund all requests. With additional funding we can fund 40 new programs to serve 4,000 more students in high schools and 50 new programs to serve 1,500 more high school students in technology centers. CareerTech last year helped more than 4,000 companies expand or prosper in business. With new services we can help many more companies and some 5,000 additional individuals. Nearly 1,000 students participated in our dropout recovery programs last year with 296 students receiving high school diplomas and 78 completing requirements for GEDs. We hope to serve 80 more students. Last year the Skills Centers provided education and training to more than 2,300 incarcerated individuals to help them become productive citizens upon their release. We can serve at least 180 more students. The CareerTech system is embarking on several initiatives to be accountable to the citizens of Oklahoma and the students we serve. Our new student information system, which will work in concert with the State Department of Education’s student accounting system, will help us provide even better service to students. In support of No Child Left Behind and the governor’s Achieving Classroom Excellence initiative, CareerTech is developing end-of-course tests and further integrating math and science in our curriculum. We also want to support teacher preparation for CareerTech programs, especially in shortage areas. Last year Oklahoma’s CareerTech system impacted thousands of individuals and companies throughout the state with 527,493 enrollments in high schools, technology centers, Skills Centers and in business and industry. The economic future of our state depends on new and improved services to business and industry and the people we serve. We look forward to an even brighter future and the opportunity to make an even greater impact on the lives of the people and companies in our great state.
posted 2/8 2006
For publication
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There are 11 million secondary and postsecondary career and technology education students in the U.S., according to the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement. In Oklahoma we experienced last year more than 500,000 enrollments in our CareerTech offerings. While we know we are impacting Oklahomans in a positive way, we are looking at ways to improve our services for an even better future. 