Career Pathways/Tech Prep Home

Benefits

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Benefits

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Q: What’s in it for me?

A: That depends on the perspective from which you are viewing the program.

If you are a student:

If you are a parent:

If you are a business person

If you are a faculty or staff member

If you are a student

With Career Pathways/Tech Prep, you can start preparing for the career of your choice while you’re still in high school. You can learn the academic and technical skills you need to eventually get a good job. You also learn very important life skills such as teamwork, decision making, and how to adapt to change.
With Career Pathways/Tech Prep, you know where you are headed and what you have to do to get there. You have a plan that can guarantee you success if you stick to it. While other kids are wondering what they will do after high school, you will know.
The academic courses in the Career Pathways/Tech Prep program are taught so that you use your hands as well as your head. You’ll learn difficult material, but you’ll find it’s much easier to understand because of the practical applications.
Career Pathways/Tech Prep students find that school becomes a lot more interesting and fun. Your attendance improves your grades, test scores go up, and you’re much less likely to drop out of school prior to graduation.
Career Pathways/TechPrep is a college-bound program. When you graduate from high school, you’ll have taken many courses for which you can receive free college credit.
If you decide to continue on to a four-year college you will be well prepared. The Career Pathways/Tech Prep curriculum is just as rigorous as the "college prep" track and the decisions you make while developing your four-year plan don’t lock you into anything.
The employers who are the schools' Career Pathways/Tech Prep partners offer opportunities for you to have work-based experiences while you’re still in school.
If you decide college isn’t for you, you will have the skills necessary for an entry-level job in your chosen Career Pathways/Tech Prep pathway. By the time you graduate from high school, the Career Pathways/Tech Prep courses you took will enhance your resume and let the employer know you are more qualified than the average high school graduate.
Eighty to ninety percent of the jobs in the 21st century will require technical training after high school, but not necessarily a four-year college degree.
Career Pathways/Tech Prep is the fastest way to become independent. Two years after high school graduation, you’ll be ready to work in a job with a good salary and the possibility of advancement.

If you are a parent:

You’ll be an integral part of the decision making process. Counselors and other school staff members will help you, and your child look at the options based on the child’s interests, aptitudes and abilities.
A long-range career plan will be developed, but it will not be set in concrete. You and your child can request changes at any time to follow a new pathway.
Career Pathways/Tech Prep incorporates applied courses in English, math and science that are wonderful for students who learn better with a hands-on approach. Grades improve because students have a better understanding of what they are doing and because they see that it really is going to be useful to them in the future.
The Career Pathways/Tech Prep curriculum meets the standards of college prep courses, and sometimes even more demanding. It includes every subject that the four-year college-bound student takes.
Career Pathways/Tech Prep students have better attendance in high school, are less likely to drop out, make better grades and higher test scores and are more apt than other students to continue their education after high school.
Career Pathways/Tech Prep is a college bound program. Every Career Pathways/Tech Prep student is expected to enroll in a two-year community college or technical school and to earn a degree or certificate. Students who wish to continue working toward a four-year degree will be well prepared to do so.
Your child can earn free college credit for some courses he or she takes in high school, thus saving both time and money at the postsecondary level. Your child can apply the skills he or she learns in high school, community college or technical school to help pay expenses for the next level of training.
Business and industry are big boosters of Career Pathways/Tech Prep and have helped design the program. Graduates will have the skills and knowledge employers are looking for, and good jobs will await them.
Eighty to ninety percent of jobs in the 21st century will require training after high school, but not necessarily a baccalaureate degree.
Career Pathways/Tech Prep will prepare your son or daughter for the technology jobs of the future. Along with academic and technical skills, he or she will learn the interpersonal and communications skills necessary to succeed at work.

If you are a business person:

Business and industry will – probably for the first time – be full partners in the educational process. Your advice on curriculum and other relevant topics will be sought – and heeded – on a continuing basis. You will have many opportunities to share your insights and concerns with educators.
Business people will be welcome as observers or participants in the classroom. In turn, teachers can accept invitations to visit your company to see what their students need to know to succeed in the workplace.
Through internships and other work-based programs, you can get to know prospective employees while they are still students. You will be able to observe them over a period of time, assess their potential and mold them to your specific needs.
Most important, Career Pathways/Tech Prep graduates will enter the workplace with good technical and academic skills and an understanding of what you expect of them. They should also cost you less money, both because they require less initial training and because they are efficient and productive on the job.

If you are a faculty or staff member:

Because all Career Pathways/Tech Prep students develop four-year career plans, they know where they are headed. They are more focused and inner-directed, and this is reflected in their behavior and academic performance.
Career Pathways/Tech Prep includes applied courses in math, science and English that lead to success for students who have never been turned on by traditional teaching methods. Students like the hands-on approach and the relevancy they see between what they are doing in school and the career goal they have chosen.
Students can receive college credit for the courses you teach. Not many high school teachers can boast of that. You’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping them get a head start on postsecondary education, saving them both time and money.
Cooperation between departments in the high school and between the secondary and postsecondary levels creates a new esprit de corps that’s both challenging and exciting. It will broaden your horizons, challenge your creativity, heighten your sense of professionalism and expand the human and material resources available to you and your students.
If you are a postsecondary teacher, you’ll get students who are better prepared and ready to learn advanced skills and concepts. They’ll be more attentive and interested because they don’t have to sit through a rerun of classes they took in high school.
Liaisons with the business community will open new doors for you. Your students will have the opportunity for job shadowing, summer employment and mentoring. You may have the opportunity for summer internships in industry to update and strengthen your business perceptions.