Opinion
College & Workforce Readiness Opinion

Teachers Need Vocational Ed., Too

May 15, 2013 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Sandy Merz

High-definition computer screens punctuate the darkness. Jumbo monitors display urgent “situations.” Workers in headsets carry on intense conversations. No, it’s not the NSA tackling an international crisis. It’s a call-center and the workers are offering special deals on a mobile phone service.

Most are between high school and something else. They earned their jobs by completing training in which they had to demonstrate the bedrock job skill: showing up every day and on time. Their pay is low and they won’t stay long. But they’ll leave armed with the confidence, skills, and experience they’ll need for their next pursuit.

The Tucson sun blazes down on the journeyman electricians. From behind black sunglasses, they tell their stories. They got their foot in the door by proving in interviews they could solve abstract problems, work under pressure in a physically demanding environment, work on a team, and communicate effectively with both specialists and lay people. Then they completed a long apprenticeship. They didn’t have to go to college.

Now they earn a base salary over $100,000, which they often match in overtime work. If you haven’t worked at the electric company for 15 years, you’re still a newcomer.

Moving beyond presumption

Assuming college is for everyone closes doors.

The best pathway a school can offer empowers students to discover and develop their strengths and passions while providing useful post-secondary options. One option is college. In southern Arizona, the Joint Technical Education District (JTED) provides many more.

Through JTED, students attend their regular high school for academic courses while receiving job training in 13 career clusters at 37 satellite locations. Clusters include air transportation, graphic communications, cosmetology, public safety, and culinary arts.

Students from all socio-economic and ethnic groups as well as urban and rural settings benefit from JTED career programs. And JTED provides scholarship and college information as well—dispelling the myth that vocational programs create a two-tiered system.

The lessons I’ve learned

The best I can do for my students is to learn what options are available during school and what demands they’ll face when they graduate. In Arizona that’s made easy with Lesson2life, a unique teacher professional development opportunity offered by the Arizona K12 Center. Participants spend three days visiting work sites and talking to employees. Through Lesson2life, I have met not only call-center workers and journeymen but also engineers, epidemiologists, wildlife rescue experts, crime lab technicians, and international business people. I can always answer the question, “When am I ever going to use this?” I can also counsel students to consider JTED programs.

Throughout the country, about half of our high school students are enrolled in vocational classes. Hopefully, most teachers know about the vocational educational options their students have.

But what exposure have you had to the opportunities available to students with vocational training? Have you had opportunities to visit workplaces and meet employees to talk about what our kids will face?

If we are to help students become career-ready, we need to forge our own connections to other careers.

August (Sandy) Merz III, a National Board-certified teacher, teaches engineering and algebra and sponsors MESA at Safford K-8 International Baccalaureate Candidate School in Tucson, Ariz.

Related Tags:

The opinions expressed in Teaching Ahead: A Roundtable are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Events

Teaching Profession K-12 Essentials Forum New Insights Into the Teaching Profession
Join this free virtual event to get exclusive insights from Education Week's State of Teaching project.
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness How Can Educators Support Students Not Going to College?
A bipartisan panel talks about slowing trends in college-going—and what it means for schools.
3 min read
Carter Crabtree, a Daviess County High School junior, learns to stack landscaping blocks with a mini excavator at a demonstration set up by Barnard Landscaping during the Homebuilder Association of Owensboro's annual Construction Career Day on Apr. 24, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky.
Carter Crabtree, a Daviess County High School junior, learns to stack landscaping blocks with a mini excavator at a demonstration set up by Barnard Landscaping during the Homebuilder Association of Owensboro's annual Construction Career Day on Apr. 24, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky. Leaders in education discuss how career-tech education programs can support non-college-bound students, in an online webinar.
Greg Eans/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP
College & Workforce Readiness Opinion Is It Time to Ditch the Four-Year Degree?
A call for three-year degrees, micro-credentials, and closer ties between educators and employers could affect K–12 and higher education.
7 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness 3 Ways Leaders Develop College and Career Pathways Designed to Serve All Students
Two EdWeek Leaders To Learn From share how they built these systems from the ground up.
3 min read
Jennifer Norrell, superintendent of East Aurora School District 131, meets with district leaders for the School Leadership Team's weekly meeting to discuss a college readiness presentation for students at East Aurora High School in Aurora, Ill., on Dec. 4, 2024.
Jennifer Norrell, the superintendent of East Aurora School District 131, meets with district leaders for the School Leadership Team's weekly meeting to discuss a college-readiness presentation for students at East Aurora High School in Aurora, Ill., on Dec. 4, 2024. She has led efforts to expand and enrich the kinds of post-high school pathways the school offers, both in core academics and in career-technical fields.
Jamie Kelter Davis for Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness High School Grads Lack Clarity on Next Steps, Survey Shows
Recent high school graduates share insights on what would have changed their trajectory in a new survey.
4 min read
Genny Willis, the Academy Teacher instructor at Smyrna High School, listens to a roundtable of students in the program in a classroom in Smyrna, Del., on Oct. 15, 2024. At Smyrna High School, there are career pathways and experimental learning opportunities to help students use practical applications towards careers after graduating high school, which can include internships, advanced classes, and specific on the job training.
Genny Willis, an instructor at Smyrna High School in Smyrna, Del., listens to a roundtable of students on Oct. 15, 2024. At Smyrna High School, there are career pathways and experimental learning opportunities to help students use practical applications towards careers after graduating high school, which can include internships, advanced classes, and specific on-the-job training.
Michelle Gustafson for Education Week