Worldwide, education, specifically in high schools, varies depending on the location. Some schools focus on a vocational education, which helps students learn in relation to a particular career, while others may focus on liberal arts, which emphasizes the importance of core subjects. Each has their own unique pros and cons, but a vocational education proves to be more effective in preparing students for the future, providing them with more opportunities, hands on experiences, and a direct path to the career of their choice. Vocational education is generally provided in stand-alone schools or as additional classes in liberal arts schools. The vocations that students are prepared for may include medicine, law, nursing, mechanics, and even engineering or business. One major benefit of this early exposure to a wide range of professions may be that students have a better idea as to what career may be right for them in the future, rather than not have any idea by the time college rolls around. This is becoming increasingly important, as in many public schools around the countries, which typically provide a liberal arts education, vocational classes are being cut back due to budget cuts. By having an idea of what they want to do, students can begin their studies while still in high school, and once in college, know what courses to take that will contribute directly to their major. Vocational programs also help to express and expand ideas in relation to real world topics. (Anyon,
The question at hand is: should professors take time and add vocational training to help students in their desired career field in addition to keeping up with the aspects of liberal arts? According to Bok, some professionals as well as university members argue that students can still get a career in their respective field without the vocational training and just a liberal arts degree. Respectively, many students worry that without the prior training for their potential career, it will be more difficult without the experience, especially when competing for the spot. As an alternative, Bok would suggest creating vocational subfields to correlate with their courses. In addition, this will allow the student to decide if that career path is right for them or not. Which is why both a liberal arts education and vocational education go hand in hand. It helps a student become a more well-rounded worker and scholar. They will have the skills to see the bigger picture and comprehend it as well as the knowledge of the career.
Vocational Education has been around throughout history in ways that were not noticed as a trending way for education. After the wars, families were self-sustained through personal knowledge and self-learned skills needed to survive. As society, advanced, newer, more efficient ways of completing tasks and learning took place, to include assistance outside the home, so families could better provide for itself. It was through these advancements that paved the way to vocational education as we know it today. There has been
For some students, the question of what to do after high school may be a burden to even contemplate as it approaches quicker and quicker. The pressure to continue another four (or more) years of education after high school can be overwhelming considering twelve years of schooling has already been completed; why go right back to school again? When’s break time? Some people are simply just not ready for college and they know it, or at least until after they have had a long break or have had some time to recollect themselves. Technically speaking college isn’t for everyone, nor is it necessarily needed for a career. Luckily today, there are many other options that potential career seeking beings can get a head start on such as community colleges and trade/vocational schools. These alternatives to a four year college are considered to be a good start on a job (and maybe even a career). The best benefits of these alternatives involve the cost of attending, the student environment, and the degrees offered.
Many people do not have the money to attend and decide to work right out of high school. There are also internships that people can do in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification that give people a hands-on experience without having to go to college states Murray. Vocational Education is also available which is education that prepares people to work in a trade, in a craft, as a technician, or in support roles in professions such as engineering, accountancy, nursing, medicine, architecture, or law. Craft vocations are usually based on manual or practical activities and are traditionally non-academic but related to a specific trade or occupation.
In a review of research, Boesel et al. (1994) noted that descriptive findings indicated that vocational students were less likely than general students to drop out (if more likely than academic students). However, students who defined themselves as vocational students in 12th rather than 9th grade in a follow-up survey or who were defined by having a vocational concentration were often much less likely to drop out than
One of the main reasons vocational education would be a good aspect to bring into the Public School system is that it would bring the importance and purpose of doing well in school back into students’ minds who are struggling in their four years of high school. When asked her opinion on vocational education a student responded positively saying, “Kids actually have fun taking these courses, and we’re not as worried about our grades because [what we are learning about is] so interesting and we want to learn about it”
One of our class readings stuck out to me. The reading was "The Return of Vocational High Schools: Career Path or Kiss of Death" by Allie Bidwell. In this she talks about career and technical schools, otherwise known as vocational schools. In the article, she mentions, "… it's not enough for students to get an education past high school- they also must have the skills needed for in-demand jobs"(Bidwell). This article relates to me deeply because last year I went to a career and technical school to further my education in the nursing world. At the end of the course, all of the students who took the class for the whole year had the opportunity to test to get their CNA license. I was fortunate enough to be able to get my license at the age of
Career and technical schools are educational facilities that allow students to explore a specific career or field that they are interested in. They offer approximately sixteen different career and technical choices and over 70 different sub-careers ranging from Education and Training, Government and Public Administration, Manufacturing, Information Technology, Finance, Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to Transportation, Distribution and Logistics plus other career fields of interest that appeal to the students. The Career and Technical Education Schools are able to fulfill the needs of employers who are looking for specific criteria when hiring a new employee to fill an available position within their company. () Since the students
According to my site supervisor, there is only one career lesson delivered to each grade level at the middle school. She said that it is not until students get to high school that the counselors really begin to focus on careers and future plans. Upon further research, I discovered that this was consistent across all middle schools in the district. I feel as though it is of utmost importance for students to be prepared and have a plan once they graduate high school. They need to be aware of their options and their career goals. In order to have a career goal and understand their post-secondary options, students must understand and gain exposure the various career paths and opportunities. It is never too early to begin planning for the future, developing career goals, and creating a post-secondary plan. For these reasons, I chose to focus, advocate for, and plan for individual planning activities that career paths to aid students in career planning.
The purpose of a liberal arts education is to teach students how to think and learn for themselves while technical colleges prepare students to immediately enter the work force after
The first point Bok brings up in the vocational program is the fact that the students in vocational programs are focused on perfecting the competent skills needed in their career. This gives the students in the vocational program an advantage since they will graduate with the skills needed to “hit the ground running” and have a better chance than liberal arts students in acquiring a job. Bok mentions a downfall about vocational programs in which vocational focuses so much on the skills students don’t learn the essential traditional skills of college. Bok then continues on to give the liberal arts side of his perspective, in which he states, “The most important step that Arts and Sciences faculties can take is simply to do a better job of achieving the traditional goals of liberal education” (Derek Bok, 42). Bok believes the advantage of liberal arts is the key fact that students learn the abilities vocational students don’t such as communication, critical thinking, problem solving, self-discipline, creativity, and human relation skills. The two disadvantages Bok mentions is that liberal arts students will have a more difficult time acquiring a job during the first ten years of work compared to vocational students and liberal arts professors disregard the need to teach skills that will be learned on the job. Bok has a neutral point
They offer career training, full time jobs out of high school, and the opportunity to bring the graduation rate up for states like Nevada with low graduation rates. This may be because students are not engaged in their learning experience. Vocational schools may fix this problem. Vocational schools are not for everybody but they greatly improve students’ lives who know what career they plan on going into. They also offer student the ability to figure out what career they want to pursue since many students are unsure since they haven’t been exposed to actual job training. Vocational schools offer opportunities that the traditional classroom
Attending college gives the student a considerable amount of knowledge before entering their career. Pursuing a bachelor’s degree usually takes four years for the average student. During these years, students are studying all aspects and information about their future career
The is one major problem with learning vocational skills in high school is that they are too specific for students who have not decided what they want to do with their futures yet. Teaching students academic skills in high school gives them all the choice in the world to what they want to be. Learning academic skills gives students a well rounded education for whatever they want to go on to do. Even when students go to a university to
Although most secondary school systems maintain a distinction between academic and vocational education, to vocationalize or not to vocationalize the secondary school has been a persistent question in many educational systems, especially in developing countries (Holsinger & Cowell, 2000; Lauglo & Maclean, 2006; Psacharopoulos, 1987). On the one hand, from a developmental perspective, the advocates of vocational secondary education perceive it as a way to develop human capital for economic development and provide students with better chances to compete in the labour market (Brunello & Checci, 2007; Gallart, 2001; Meer, 2007; Miranda, 2005; Shavit & Muller, 2000). On the other hand, the stratification of educational systems between a ‘higher’ curriculum (general secondary school) and a ‘lower’ curriculum (vocational secondary school) has been deemed to be a source of inequality in the distribution of education opportunities (Kerckhoff, 2001). Students in the vocational schools typically come from low socio-economic strata (Larrañaga, Cabezas, & Dussaillant, 2014; Psacharopoulos & Loxley, 1985). At the same time, studies show that vocational secondary schools may prevent low-income students from further training beyond secondary education because they do not develop the skills required for tertiary education (Brunello & Checci, 2007; Farías & Carrasco, 2012; Holm, Meier, Bernt-Karlson, & Reimer, 2013; Malamud & Pop-Eleches, 2008; Shavit & Muller, 2000). In addition, scholars