BC is potentially facing a skilled labour shortage. We believe schools can play a larger role in helping address this problem.
How can our education system ensure that graduates are prepared for success in trades and technical careers?
38 Responses to “ Question 19: Support for Vocational Education ”
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Needs to be programs that are real and relavent. technical programs have become areas with many challenged students and outdated equipment. The result is that programs do not transfer to higher post-secondary programs and are not recognized. There needs to be an accreditation of the programs that are being offered, he results could provide informaion on how to improve the porgrams so students would see the value these programs can offer. In Manitoba currentl there is a movement to improve the shop areas. We need to look at doing the same here. We have produced a document “Best Practices Guide” which outlines steps that can be taken to improve technical education options being offered to our students. Provide students with a real experince in the schools and see the transition into technical career options that will follow.
Luc Ouellet (Automotive Teacher)
Thanks for your comment, Luc. Do you have a link to the Best Practices Guide that you could share with us?
Trades … love it! So many youth are very interested in this. And our province is in need of them. We need to:
- have more opportunities to educate our students and parents about the great opportunities available to our learners: ACE IT and SSA.
- we need staff dedicated to increasing career opportunities. I have a great career counselor who works hard on this. That’s not the case in all schools.
- have fewer administrative road blocks to these great opportunities. Student x enrolls in Camosun Electrician program and completes it – that should be enough for the funding. The copious amounts of paperwork required administratively scares some parents, students and even educators off.
- fewer barriers to graduation. Some students say no because their home school won’t let them graduate until the program has been completed.
- remove ACE IT and SSA courses from the ‘auditable’ list. If a piece of paperwork is missing or incomplete it could end up costing a district a substantial amount of money in an audit.
- perhaps make career courses it’s own branch like DL or CE? Funded separately from the block? Not audited but quality reviewed?
We should, and could, have way more students participating in SSA and ACE IT if we work on educating the educators, the parents, and the students about the opportunities, as well as making the process of registering a student less daunting.
Alberta has program to assist trades teachers become certified teachers, would be great to see a similar program in BC.
Brian, do you have a link for this?
Yes, http://education.alberta.ca/admin/workforce.aspx
One of the skilled labour shortages BC faces is the shortage of skilled Tech Ed/Shop Teachers who can impart these “Vocational Education” skills to our learners. Shop Teachers are becoming a rare breed… so what do you do when these very skilled vocational ed teachers “pack it in” for the “greener pastures” of the oil patch and private sector?
John Abbott speaks to this dilemma in his 2004 manuscript “Master & Apprentice: Reuniting Thinking with doing.”
“(Apprenticeship) was a system of education and job training by which important practical information was passed from one generation to the next; it was a mechanism by which youths could model themselves on socially approved adults… it provided safe passage from childhood to adulthood in psychological, social and economic ways.” (The Craft Apprentice W.J. Rorabaugh, 1988)
Maybe if districts are having trouble recruiting & retaining school shop teachers, we could outsource: put learning hubs with “socially approved adults” in our community’s shops. School District #60 is doing this with Project Heavy Duty.
Perhaps teaching skills in isolated school shops is an outdated model and needs to be more fully integrated with “life in the real world.” No one can teach you to work hard and fast like a *cat skinner with a track shovel.
(*Oil-patch lingo for a gentleman who operates heavy equipment such as a bulldozer)
Great point Elaine!
For those interested in reading the source document quoted, or about School District’s #60′s project, I have provided the links:
“Master & Apprentice: Reuniting Thinking with Doing”, John Abbott
Project Heavy Duty, School District #60
We need better understanding of apprenticeship programs. Many students entering the graduation years are unaware that these programs exist, or don’t understand how to enter the programs. Also, those who are interested are sometimes concerned about a social stigma, often perpetuated through poor choices in communication from educators who are university educated, and may sound biased in favour of that stream, albeit inadvertently. So, I think if we can promote the apprenticeship stream as a valid and important option earlier in the school program, there is an opportunity for more students to see the value of trades or technical vocations.
School counsellors should be aware of programs and agencies like Yes 2 It and the Industry Training Authority. For more information please visit our It’s Happening Locally page (http://www.bcedplan.ca/happening_local.php).
The system can do more to help ensure that students are aware that completion fo high school or a certain level is not enough to be successful in life. i think there is way too much focus on “improving” graduate rates rather than looking at the individual student and assisting them to meet the goals that will help them be successful in life. In the real world, skill development is important. We should be doing more to expose students to areas that they can study and train in, especially since the opportunities exist to partner with local Post Secondary Institutions. Additionally, students should be encouraged to work hard in the areas that they need to studying in order to enter into the trades. Too many people see trades as the alternative to academics, and that it doesn’t require any skill. Trades do still require that a student has competent literacy skills, and often Math as well. It still requires work and committment, and that is something that needs to be focused on in school: developing a sense of committment and a high standard of work, rather than just getting through.
In order to encourage vocational training opportunities, some form of incentives need to be offered to employers to encourage them to invite students to work under their supervision in the fields of interest. With tax breaks or subsidised wage payment schemes more tradesmen may be encouraged to take on the responsibility for helping to train the future generation of skilled workers. School staff would take on a supervisory or administrative role in organizing the program and in creating easy-to-use policies and tools to assist the student and tradesman.
Firstly, I agree with Musical and several others here. I responded to this idea in January on another post. If people in the ministry would only have the courage to look at the models in Europe, where students are streamed into “university bound” and “skilled trades” they would find that the schools these students would attend would be geared to the skills and interests of both groups. My husband is from Poland and began his technical training in the shipyards of Gdansk at the age of 16. He graduated with a full technical diploma which also covered academic subjects including physics, language, history and so on, while being in training to build ships from hull to deck and more. Coming to Canada and starting his own business, he is appalled at the low level of education that his “welding apprentices” show up with. They are kids who have little to no mathematical understanding, don’t even know how to measure, know nothing about the materials they are working with, only how to turn on a welder’s torch and stick two pieces of metal together. They are “graduates” of our high school system. On the other hand, the very academically brilliant and able students come to university and promptly fall off their high horses at the first set of midterms because they, equally, were not prepared adequately for the rigours of university training (except maybe those in a IB program, which is rare). Look to Europe for successful models of education in both academics and skilled trades. Why are “European Craftsmen” so in demand, you might ask?
I think that the first step for encouraging the basis for trades education in schools is to work on removing the stigma that surrounds them. I think that what is communicated through the school system is that the people who are the most competent and capable go to university. The flip side of this means that admitting an interest in trades can be viewed as giving up or admitting your lack of academic skill. I think that encouraging trades has to start with encouraging students to take classes like technical education classes and home economics classes. I think that these classes can be encouraged or mandatory for students who plan on going to university as well as those who want to go into trades. These classes can be beneficial for people going into very academic careers such as engineering and having a mix of student achievement in those classes could remove the stigma of taking those classes.
This is a critical question we are facing, and we have already begun to see the effects of this issue on the current generation of youth. As the world is changing, so are people’s role within society. Youth have so many opportunities and choices in this world, and they are incredibly lucky. But it also comes with a price. Competition for jobs is more fierce than ever before, and university degree inflation is a major concern. For this reason, I think careers in trades and technical careers need to be promoted starting at an early age. In my experience in high school, it was always clear that there was only one option for me, which was to go to university. I didn’t even know there were other options out there, such as BCIT or Emily Carr. I was led to believe those schools were not as reputable as other universities such as UBC. Looking back on my experience after high school, I realize that I would have flourished in a more practical, hands-on school. It is imperative that teachers, counsellors and parents encourage and support the youth in making a choice that is right for them. Careers in trade are not only very respectable, but highly necessary in this day and age. Students must be given the opportunity to experiment with trades and other technical skills throughout high school, and if they choose to continue with that, they should have the option of focusing largely on it in grades 11 and 12. In addition to it being important to offer these programs at all schools, students should be respected and encouraged to join the programs if they wish to. However, this still doesn’t address the larger issue, which is that society still places higher value on university degrees, which is something that needs to change, and most likely will over time.
Vocational education speaks well to the elements of personalized learning, flexiblity/choice and high standards in the BC Education Plan. In particular, the ACE IT programs are delivered and assessed according to industry standards.
ACE IT programs have been a tremendous success in our district, offering students alternate pathways for high school completion giving our students a head start in their career path and opportunity to learn in a pathway of expressed passion. It is critical that ACE IT programs be better supported and funded by the Ministry of Education. We would like to see an increase number of seats in ACE IT programs.
Not only do ACE IT programs facilitate transition into post-secondary education and/or workplace but so do CTC and dual credit programs. We would like the Ministry to expand its support to help schools develop and expand dual credit programs with post-secondary partners that offer certificate programs in a variety of vocation fields.
WEX component is essential as it offers authentic learning experiences. Through work experience — schools, community, business and industry are brought together as partners. WEX helps students with transition into the workplace. We would like the Ministry to continue its support in this regard. Cooperative programs are one of the more effective ways that students can explore their career interests in their study focus area. We suggest that the Ministry offer additional Ministry-authorized WEX courses such as WEX 12C and 12D.
We would like the Ministry to continue its support in the Secondary School Apprenticeship program (SSA 11A, B, 12A, B) and the SSA Scholarship program. The recommendation is that the Ministry fund the school district when the student registers with the Industry Training Authority (ITA) as opposed to funding these courses by a 1701 September deadline. Also, we would like to recommend that the process of reporting WBT hours for students qualifying for scholarships be better coordinated between the Ministry of Education and the ITA.
Respectfully submitted.
There are some excellent ideas in the comments below; work experience is a critical component of any apprenticeship. Our district still uses the CTC model to deliver ACE IT foundations trades training to about 75 grade 12′s each year, along with another 5-10 students taking post-secondary certification in secretarial, information technology and health care assistant. We hope to add dental assistant and other certificates next year. In addition, we offer individual dual credit courses in non-trades areas which is also expanding. So I agree that hybrid models where students are part of both K-12 and post-secondary systems can work well. But there are some bureaucratic barriers between the two systems which need to be addressed. I appreciate the ITA has stepped up to provide some reasonably stable funding to promote skilled trades training. WorkSafe has also stepped up to help sponsor events such as “Heavy Metal Rocks.”
I think that some principals, counsellors and successive school boards have let many of our districts down by allowing the demise of shops programs in regular high schools. This has happened by increasing class sizes, allowing equipment to become old, not centralizing programs where necessary due to declining enrollment, and failing to adequately promote experiential learning as satisfying and meaningful work. The teachers may be guilty as well if they haven’t kept up with the technical aspects of their trades. School boards will point to the constraints of provincial fiscal policy, but they have not made a concerted effort to sustain quality trades education.
I agree with the person below that pointed to “Shop Class as Soulcraft” by Matthew Crawford as a well thought out rationale for bringing back “Tech” classes as the place to be. Those classes can become laboratories of inventiveness and problem solving if married to appropriate software. Students interested in engineering or entrepreneurship can be put together with those interested more in the craft of building and fixing things.
It’s good to have a forum to begin fleshing out some of these topics.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Rick.
In middle school, schools need to educate all students and parents about the changing nature of trades work (higher skill, in demand, respected, etc.) to help in eradicating the trades stereotypes. Students need hands-on workshops to help them understand that trades work is challenging and fun.
Schools need to build in pre-apprenticeship exploration classes for grade 10 students. Such a class would include trades safety certifications (first aid, WHMIS, etc.), and modules in several trades, particularly those trades that the school offers ACE-IT programs in. It would be aimed at helping students choose an ACE-IT program based on sound experience.
ACE-IT programs need to be more fully funded by the Ministry of Education, not so dependant on ITA funding tied to student success rates.
WEX 12A should be expanded so that all students in grades 11/12 have at least 1 school-arranged work placement linking them to a career area of interest to them. This could be made a mandatory part of the Grad Transitions Program IF employers were onside. All students need more personalized real career development. Also, expanding the Take Our Kids to Work day to include grade 10 students would be a natural fit with the Planning 10 curriculum.
The comments to date have many thoughtful options and alternatives. I believe that the contents of studies such as 2020 are indicators of what we should be looking at and working towards. Perhaps a fluid k-17 system, with all of the ministries working together; Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, MOE, and Advanced Ed.
The wondrous beauty of the BC public system is that every part of the province has career practitioners working on personalized learning, and would be in a position to offer sage advice on the effectiveness of what is occurring; such as higher retention rates, greater graduation rates, and passionate students.
The relevance of education is demonstrated through the ACE-IT program, SSA program, YES 2 IT program, and the many career experiential offerings such as Heavy Metal Rocks; RCMP Youth Academy and Fire Attack.
Working with post secondary so that grade 12 students may attend certificated programs such as Early Childhood Education; Health Care Assistant; and Administrative Assistant is another example of personalized learning.
In support of previous comments… We need to be working with students at an earlier level, not waiting till grade 1. The career awareness should begin as early as grade 3 and 4 with Yes 2 IT beginning around grade 6 and 7.
It is not necessarily a streaming but a broadening of opportunities for our youth; “Relevant Education”
In the fall of 2011, Atlantic magazine published these words from a larger article in examining the demise of the middle class. Its suggestions on education are pertinent to this question. See excerpt below and link for article.
“As we continue to push for better K–12 schooling and wider college access, we also need to build more paths into the middle class that do not depend on a four-year college degree. One promising approach, as noted by Haskins and Sawhill, is the development of “career academies”—schools of 100 to 150 students, within larger high schools, offering a curriculum that mixes academic coursework with hands-on technical courses designed to build work skills. Some 2,500 career academies are already in operation nationwide. Students attend classes together and have the same guidance counselors; local employers partner with the academies and provide work experience while the students are still in school.
“Vocational training” programs have a bad name in the United States, in part because many people assume they close off the possibility of higher education. But in fact, career-academy students go on to earn a postsecondary credential at the same rate as other high-school students. What’s more, they develop firmer roots in the job market, whether or not they go on to college or community college. One recent major study showed that on average, men who attended career academies were earning significantly more than those who attended regular high schools, both four and eight years after graduation. They were also 33 percent more likely to be married and 36 percent less likely to be absentee fathers.
Career-academy programs should be expanded, as should apprenticeship programs (often affiliated with community colleges) and other, similar programs that are designed to build an ethic of hard work; to allow young people to develop skills and achieve goals outside the traditional classroom as well as inside it; and ultimately to provide more, clearer pathways into real careers. By giving young people more information about career possibilities and a tangible sense of where they can go in life and what it takes to get there, these types of programs are likely to lead to more-motivated learning, better career starts, and a more highly skilled workforce. Their effect on boys in particular is highly encouraging. And to the extent that they can expose boys to opportunities within growing fields like health care (and also expose them to male role models within those fields), these programs might even help weaken the grip of the various stereotypes that seem to be keeping some boys locked into declining parts of the economy.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/can-the-middle-class-be-saved/8600/4/?single_page=true
Excellent comments Gordon; thank you!
Vocational education implies training for a specific job. We presently have very good opportunities for this with the ACE IT and SSA initiatives.
The ACE IT trades training program which is a partnership between school districts and the Industry training authority is a good system to provide vocational training for students wishing to pursue a trades career. Many students get level 1 technical trades training while in high school, and receive high school credits for this.
We also have Secondary School Apprenticeship, which allows students to learn from a sponsor, one on one learning, and receive graduation requirements. What seems ridiculous is students must also complete some high school courses just to “jump through the hoops” in order to graduate. Please see my comments for number 18 and graduation requirements.
What we really need in our education system is to continue to offer good “hands on” learning programs in our shop/technology education classes. Creativity should be the focus in these classes, not just training on the use of machines to perform a specific operation, which vocational training implies. What is going to be needed in this ever changing work world is people capable to design and create new solutions to problems. Students should not be streamed to vocational training or academic training, but able to move back and forth throughout their life.
Please visit http://www.itabc.ca/Page1000.aspx for more information on the Ace IT and SSA programs.
There are not enough teachers well trained in the trades or schools with sufficient up to date equipment to adequately provide the infrastructure to enable such programing. Partnering with local colleges/vocational schools or creating technology academies that focus in these areas within school districts is likely the way to go. The present model of having inadequately updated shops dispersed across the districts with meager offerings in virtually every high school is not meeting the needs of most students. Creating contemporary well-resourced BCIT type schools within some districts to which students can apply to for instruction at some point might provide the necessary motivation to attend school and maintain basic core literacy skills in order to apply. Entry is based upon interest and perhaps an interview to explain why the trades would be the place for them. The synergy and excitement coming from such highly regarded places where teachers and students work on stimulating tasks and where they share common interests in partnership with local business has great potential. Knowing by the end of high school you are well on your way to a high paying job that is fulfilling and in demand should motivate many students to stay in school to pursue their vocational education.
Pat and Roger, I like your ideas. While my son is only in kindergarten, he has a keen interest in fixing things, trucks, appliances and computers. I spend a lot of time keeping screwdrivers out of his hands but must say it comes in handy as he is able to unlock doors and fix things that I can’t. He dislikes printing something fierce and I have been working with the school to make sure he can meet kindergarten expectations, even though I am sure he can use a screw driver better than most his age. I wonder at what age you can start to see what fits best for a child and if it is at a young age, should schools be introducing these options and career exploration even earlier than grade 10?
Learn from current innovations/examples in the field and build on ACE-IT, the Northern Opportunities initiative in Northern B.C., and enable partnerships with post-secondary institutions that enable students, for example, to obtain PSI credits and get a start on trades training. In my experience, this has often proven to be a more relevant approach for many students and one which brings authenticity to certain required courses. Places likes Fort St. John and Dawson Creek have been deeply engaged in such thinking for years, and the Career and Technical Center model has many assets.
It is time for the Ministry of Education to connect with Industry, Advanced Education, and Employers to develop strategies to attract a larger segment of our youth to the trades and to train them as necessary for successful entry into a trades work force.
The typical teacher with a university education working alone in our education system realistically shouldn’t be expected to understand what it takes to have a successful career in a trade. This is well beyond their expertise and they need direction to even talk about trades careers.
Research suggests that early career experiences (as early as age 10) have significant impact on attitudes around careers. If we get younger kids out of the classroom and into the working community or into post-secondary trades schools doing shadows it is likely that they will have more interest in careers in the trades.
One of the myths that we need to address off the top is that there are “trades kids” and “academic kids”. Many of the students in our district defy that stereotype and are bridging the gap between the two (trades are becoming increasingly technical). Kids who are not really academically inclined, may excel in a math course if they find the applicability in their very technical apprenticeship, and many students who are taking academic courses and heading toward university degrees participate in trades programs in order to work in summer jobs that pay well.
Many school districts in the province are already offering extensive Career programs. In our district we work with post secondary institutions to send grade 11 and 12 students to technical trades programs prior to graduation, in a dual credit program. We recognize hours worked in apprenticeable trades for elective credit toward graduation, and our district has developed academic and elective courses that are geared toward trade prerequisites, like Applications of Physics and Transition to Trades.
We have in school programs in Hairdressing, Residential Construction and Cook Training, where students receive level one credentials over a semester or a full year program.
Students who are interested in trades may begin their career search with a volunteer work experience (over 10% of the student body participates in this volunteer elective course.
We are finding that the completion rates for at risk kids is going up, that students are securing employment prior to graduation, and that the number of females and first nation students working in trades has increased. The number of students attending post secondary obviously increases, as they are attending prior to graduating from highschool.
We recognize that trades are technical and start working with students to choose the proper courses and to achieve the marks they need to attend technical training from grade 10 to 12.
We go in to the elementary schools, middle schools, and community to give presentations to students and parents, so that students can start planning to participate early.
We have a long way to go to make our programs work for everyone, but we are working on new intiatives and partnerships (post secondary, industry, Ministry of Education, and the Industry Training authority of BC) every year. This is truly personalized learning.
What it requires is support from the Ministry to continue/increase funding for trades elective courses and programs like ours, so that students can start their careers early or be prepared for employment or post secondary as they graduate.
Bridging the gap between trades and academics is certainly worth fostering. It would seem that the current system allows for that, as you described some students taking a mix of both already.
So long as both options are already available, it would seem that the ‘streams’ already exist, if the students wish to enroll in them.
Career planning currently does not have enough of a focus in the K-9 curriculum to prepare students for graduation programming that begins in grade 10. Due to a lack of relevant educational opportunites to exposure students to career options in elementary and middle school, most students are ill-prepared for the Planning 10 when they are asked “what do you want to pursue for a career when you leave secondary school?”.
Students need more discussion, exposure and hands on activites beginning about grade 4 so they can form ideas about career options based on likes and abilities. Students that have had the time to explore and experience careers in a meaningful way will be much better prepared to select a career direction and make realistic career course programming decisions when they begin the graduation program in grade 10.
Transition/graduation programming in grades 10-12 must be individualized and flexible enough to allow students to follow or explore in depth their career pathway with as many laddering opportunities as possible to allow them to change direction.
To shorten the transition of secondary school students into post secondary or directly into the workforce requires transition/graduation programming in the K-12 system that is as seemless and transparent as possible (K-17). This will require at least 3 of government ministries (Education, Advanced Education and Jobs, Tourism and Innovation) to work together to provide transition programming for K_12 students that begins long before students graduate from secondary school.
The following would be a cooperative goal between post secondary institutions and secondary schools. It would stall if one waited for the other to get organized.
Have trades people in as visiting guests in Career courses at high school. This could start in grade 8 instead of waiting for the senior level.
Give students practical life information such as job prospects where they live within professions, and the salary they can expect to make over the course of their professional life. Take into consideration the cost of housing etc in their area.
Develop credit courses in high school that can be applied to their post secondary vocational education.
Promote trades in work experience.
Having diversity in teachers. When all a teacher knows is academia ( k-12, university, and back to school as a teacher ) I feel it is a disservice to the student. Teacher will teach what they know and if they know nothing other than academia thats what they will give students. Having teachers who perhaps were once a commercial fisherman or logger that now teach will provide students with a much richer experience.
Parents also have to play into this. The parent that has a plumber in to fix the sink who says to their children “go to school or you will wind up like this guy” what they dont tell the kids is that after he fixes their sink for $200 bucks in his pocket he is taking his classic Vette out for a spin.
It has to be a societal change. My best advice is make “Shop Class as Soul Craft required reading for teachers and policy makers.
Actually, a lot of teachers are already from diverse backgrounds prior to teacher college. Still, one should not discourage enthusiastic, young teachers who have only had university experience and teacher college experience thus far – this still makes them at very least makes them mid-20s, which is old enough to start inspiring young kids down a course that is every bit as legitimate as other, more diversely experienced teachers might be able to do. Teaching is not like medicine in that the years one spends in school pays off given the salary doctors make. Teachers should have the right to start practicing and perfecting their craft by 25, especially as so many of them substitute teach for 3-4 years before they get full-time work. The financial considerations just don’t work otherwise.
I have heard that BCIT is fabulous (i.e., it only offers programmes that are ‘highly likely’ to result in jobs for its students; and, almost every graduate does in fact get a job, in their field of study, resulting in a whole new crop of proud, successful, tax-paying citizens).
I would like to see:
#1) More post-secondary level BCITs; and
#2) Middle and secondary-level BCITs for younger students (i.e., those identified by end of Grade 5 as being prime candidates for a trade or technology programme, as opposed to a more academic-style programme).
There should be fulling operating industrial arts programs and trade skill development programs at secondary schools. We are losing the interest of boys that prefer hands on learning. Schools promote fine arts like dance, theatre and drama and ignore hands on learning. Have engineering classes,shop driven math classes, The secondary school in our semi rural catchment area has at least dozens of fine art classes, and for the hands on trades learner -there is a woodworking shop ! No wonder boys end up in alternate school, dropping out or leaving.
Trades and technical careers still require math. Often, I see students that are directed into the trades because they aren’t good in academics and then can’t complete the necessary math and drop out. Students get passed along in math despite not having good basics and grade 11 is often too late to go back and learn from the beginning. There needs to be more early intervention so students have all the options open to them.
Bring back IE (Industrial Education) and expand it into electronics and computers. Perhaps it could be an engineering credit in grades 8-12. It used to be mandatory for grade 8 and then optional thereafter.
Not that this is within our mandate but we also need to convert back post-secondary schools that changed from colleges that offered the trades to polytechnic universities. This has been a worldwide trend, and not just in Canada. I think trades have been come to be seen as pejorative and somehow lesser to the doctors, lawyers, teachers and dentists of this world. That needs to change