CTE Shop Class: Now It’s High-Tech

Trade workers: Most essential

By Mike Porcelli

Photo by Kateryna Babaieva via Pexels

Last week – Veterans Week – many events highlighted the importance of trade workers to our economy and military forces.

As I marched with my fellow Veterans up Fifth Avenue in the Veterans Day Parade, I was reminded of how important trade workers are to military units.

The military equipment and vehicles on display at the parade require troops with the skills to repair and maintain them. Without such skilled workers, no military unit could function, just as no corporation operates without skilled workers to keep everything running.

After the parade, during ceremonies at the Intrepid Air & Space Museum, the array of military equipment on the ship prompted me to ask a Navy Captain: What percentage of sailors on such a ship use trade-skills to support the ship’s mission? The answer was – more than half of all ship personnel are in trade related fields, from cooks and electricians, to mechanics who maintain both the ship and the aircraft it carries.

I’ve previously reported that NASA could not launch a single mission without their skilled workers who maintain all spacecraft and ground equipment. Likewise, our military could not launch a single mission without their skilled trade workers.

The reduction of trade education programs in schools for over half a century, has been detrimental to both our economy and military forces.

Civilian sector companies and military branches are finding it more difficult than ever to hire workers with trade skills.

This shortage of skilled workers has been detrimental to corporate bottom-lines, the economy in general and is a grave danger to National Security.

The only way to prevent economic collapse and a military without operational equipment is to immediately restore trade education in every school district nationwide.

I’ve written about several local events that are working toward that goal. Last week, another event on Long Island showed school board members the importance of trade-training and the vast opportunities it provides students. This is very encouraging.

To help reverse the decline of education generally, local recruiters from the Army were at the Long Island event and the Community Board 5 meeting to explain the benefits of march2Success.com for students.

The program, which can help students determine their aptitudes for various career paths and help them become better test-takers, can greatly assist schools in matching their education resources to student’s needs. 

I strongly recommend schools assist students in utilizing march2success as a tool to guide them to their best career paths. 

Everyone must recognize and respect not just the service of our combat veterans, but remember to honor the support troops whose trade skills keep military equipment functioning. 

Schools must also respect the needs of students who want such training and provide it, because: trade workers are most essential.

CTE Shop Class: Now It’s High-Tech

Student ability and performance

By Mike Porcelli

Last week on the Dr. Phil and Martha MacCallum TV shows, Suffolk County Community College Professor of Political Science Nicholas Giordano, reported on the disturbing decline of student performance in American public schools.

Why is this important and how could it be allowed to happen in the greatest country in the history of the world?

It’s important because the continued success of our nation depends on the education of our next generation of workers.

For over a century, the U.S. has been the leader in developing new technology, the only country to visit the moon and been at the forefront of the quest to visit other planets.

This technological leadership will not continue if we do not improve the ability of our schools to produce the world’s best trained workers – in every area.

The most disturbing takeaways from these shows was how low our public school students rank among their peers in other developed nations, that this trend has been getting worse for decades, and our schools are lowering their standards to cover up the fact this decline is occurring.

I suggest that a major contributor to poor student performance could be an important principle stressed here each week… the need for schools to match their curricula to each student’s abilities and aptitudes.

When this is not the case, and education is not targeted to the student’s interests, the natural curiosity every student possesses is not satisfied, leading them to become disinterested – resulting in low grades, high dropout rates and unfulfilling professional and personal lives.

The first problem has been that schools generally do not have assessment programs in place to determine what subjects students are interested in, and what career paths coincide with those interests.

The second strike that students face is the generations of school administrators who decree, “Everyone must go to college.”

This attitude results in pushing students into programs they are not interested in, leading them to drop out and leaving them with limited employable skills and high levels of student debt they can’t pay.

What can be done to correct this situation before it’s too late?

As reported here many times, March2Success.com and other free programs offer schools the ability to help students assess their own aptitudes, skills and best career paths.

Schools must begin to implement these programs in order to balance their curricula with the demand in each subject area.

Schools must then develop and staff their academic and skilled trade programs to meet their respective demand. This is the only way to ensure that every student suited for CTE can receive it.

This goal must be accomplished if our country is to remain the world’s leading technological and economic power.

Government must get this done before it’s too late.

Student success depends on this.

Academic & Trade Education are Two Sides of a Coin. This column explores the impact of CTE programs on students, society, and the economy.

Mike Porcelli: life-long mechanic, adjunct professor, and host of Autolab Radio, is committed to restoring trade education in schools before it’s too late. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-porcelli-master-mechanic-allasecerts/