High schools expand options to connect students to careers

Cows, plows and chickens are just the beginning for students in agriculture, a longtime option for career education in high school, said Bill Laney, a teacher in the agriculture department at Fayetteville High School.

“It’s management, business,” Laney said. “It’s engineering. It’s science. It’s genetics.”

Programs to connect high school students with careers are designed to give them options after high school to start a job, go to college or both.

Career education has drawn increased attention in high schools across Northwest Arkansas. Nearly all school districts have developed new programs that tie in with career education. Increasingly, schools are trying to interest students in careers requiring highly technical skills.

Some high schools offer academies with a career focus, while other school districts have developed district-run charter schools with an emphasis on preparing for careers. Students can also connect with careers at the Secondary Area Technical Center at Northwest Technical Institute in Springdale.

Laney often recommends students interested in the medical field consider earning a bachelor’s degree in poultry science or food science, he said. The course requirements for those degrees not only prepare a student for working in industry, but often lead to scholarships and give students the background in science they need for pharmacy school, veterinary school or medical school, he said.

“We’re not trying to force any type of agriculture education,” Laney said. “We’re just showing them options.”

Fayetteville High School offers dozens of career education courses, but students are encouraged to complete a career pathway consisting of at least three related courses, said Marianne Hauser, who oversees career and technical education. The high school offers 19 pathways in eight career education programs of study.

School officials are exploring new programs for the 2017-18 school year, including for student internships and for students interested in small business operations and biomedical engineering, Hauser said.

CHANGING CAREER

REQUIREMENTS

Career education is undergoing a shift, said Dawn Stewart, director of career and technical education for Rogers School District.

For years, high schools put a priority on preparing students for college, Stewart said. With new career opportunities emerging that do not require a four-year degree, direct-to-career programs are gaining more attention. Many businesses and industries offer on-the-job training, certification programs or will pay for students to attend college to improve their skills, she said.

High schools not only need to prepare students with ambitions of earning bachelor’s, master’s and

professional degrees, but also to ensure students entering the workforce have just as many opportunities for a successful career, Stewart said.

“What was once called vocational education is really coming back,” Stewart said.

Career education programs open to all Rogers students are housed on different campuses. The district provides transportation for students who select courses at a different campus than the one they attend, Stewart said. Many programs are designed for students to earn industry credentials.

Options include automotive service technology at Rogers Heritage High School and a new certified nursing assistant program that opened in January with 23 students at Rogers High School. The certified nursing assistant program is open to students from nearby districts as part of the Secondary Career Center based at Northwest Technical Institute in Springdale.

The career and technical education department tries to communicate to families all of the options students have for career programs, Stewart said. A meeting in January allowed 240 students and their parents to meet representatives of businesses and industries and teachers of career courses offered within the district, Stewart said.

‘WHAT IS THAT FUTURE?’

The conversation is not limited to going to college or starting a career, said Joe Rollins, who oversees career and technical education in Springdale and is principal of the district’s School of Innovation.

“The focus is that all students have a future to prepare for,” Rollins said. “What is that future? A lot of our students are preparing for a career. A lot will elect to go to college. Even after college graduation, we want to make sure they are ready to be contributing members of our society.”

Career development in Springdale begins in middle schools with a curriculum for students to develop a 10-year plan that is revised periodically until a student graduates, Rollins said. The plan reflects their aptitudes and interests.

Springdale opened a new School of Innovation that is growing into a high school. The school has a flexible, self-paced curriculum and students hear weekly from adults in different professions.

The school will move from a temporary space in the Jones Center to a permanent home in east Springdale for the 2016-17 school year. Business and industry representatives will teach some of the school’s classes, Rollins said.

Career and technical education courses offered at the School of Innovation will prepare students for industry certifications and will show students how to apply what they learn in their academic courses to a project they might see in the workplace.

SOLVING REAL PROBLEMS

Bentonville schools are connecting students with careers by designing projects that correspond with real issues facing businesses and community organizations, Superintendent Mike Poore said.

The emphasis is having an impact, Poore said. One high school student with academic challenges found he excelled in a computer coding course. School officials were able to enroll him in a coding course that gave him credit for high school and college. He finished the course and is now among Bentonville High School students interning with Wal-Mart.

“Their engagement goes off the charts,” Poore said. “They’re proud. They’re excited.”

High school students in Bentonville have options to a variety of career education courses, but the district also has created an Ignite program for juniors and seniors to gain experience working with employers, Poore said. Ignite has six choices: computer science and technology, construction professions, creative arts and production, culinary arts and medical professions.

The program began with the technology strand and with the district developing an agreement for students in the class to work on coding as interns for Wal-Mart, Poore said. More than 50 students have expressed interest in the medical professions strand, while 15 students are signed up to study welding and heating-and-air-conditioning through a program housed within the Gravette School District.

Pea Ridge School District hired a welder, a nurse and a marketing professional to teach in its conversion charter school, the Pea Ridge Manufacturing and Business Academy, Pea Ridge High School Principal Jon Laffoon said. Juniors and seniors have the option of taking courses through the high school and the academy.

Students can explore careers in industrial technology, health care, marketing and logistics, plastic and metal fabrication, and multimedia production, Laffoon said. The academy also has developed partnerships with area businesses.

“Our students not only take trips to those facilities but those partners send some of their teams to our school and provide problem-based learning for our students they’re facing in their businesses,” Laffoon said.

One group of students in marketing and logistics was challenged to find a way to build facilities in remote areas overseas, he said.

Pea Ridge High School students also have access to career interest inventories aimed at sparking ideas for what careers might fit their interests, said Courtney Hurst, a career counselor for the school. Students attend a 25-minute class each day that focuses on helping them academic and career planning, she said.

The idea is to link high school with their future, Hurst said.