These days, high school students use three-dimensional printers for clothing fashion or interior design projects. They stitch apparel with the help of a computer that generates different fonts. They nudge artificial intelligence for an artistic touch on glossy hotel and restaurant advertisements. And it’s not unheard of to find graduating seniors who’ll pay for college debt-free thanks to a slick marketing plan they developed at school for their online business.
Such are the realities of career and technical education (CTE) today, and many students who discover a special interest in those programs are eager to share their accomplishments and lobby for more resources to further their progress. That’s just what student leaders and advisers of two national organizations — Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) — did recently as part of National CTE Month.
All told, more than 25 high school and college leaders representing over 400,000 members of the two organizations met with members of Congress and senior leaders from the U.S. Department of Education between Feb. 11 and Feb. 17. The event coincided with the upcoming reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which provides funding to scholastic CTE programs, according to a recent news release.
In a Feb. 26 interview with Government Technology, FBLA CEO and President Alexander Graham said students received an incredibly warm reception and constant high-fives from federal officials who had been part of FBLA clubs at their own high schools years ago. Everyone was pleased to see that CTE is a bipartisan issue.
The highlight of the event, Graham added, was meeting with Amy Loyd, U.S. assistant secretary for career, technical and adult education, who was hyper-focused on learning about the students’ experiences and did more listening than talking. Graham said she learned about a variety of creative business education programs where students have run flower shops, credit unions and after-school eateries in their own classroom buildings to help cover the costs of field trips and business attire.
“Talk about giving her a focus group,” he said.
Graham said the vast majority of young leaders who met with Loyd are enrolled in dual-credit programs with local colleges. One of FBLA’s top legislative priorities, at the state level and nationally, is to secure assurances that dual-enrollment, dual-credit and vocational certification programs for high school students will continue to be funded across the country.
FCCLA Executive Director Sandy Spavone said these advocacy and lobbying efforts are especially important at a time when STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) is so often in the spotlight. While family and consumer sciences — also called home economics — are not typically thought of as STEM topics, math is applied for measuring and design tasks, and chemistry lessons can easily be incorporated into recipes and cooking, not to mention the emerging technology that students use to complete projects and enhance their vocational training.
Spavone’s organization also advocates better pay for family and consumer sciences teachers because they often have to spend their own money to cover materials and ingredients for labs. Moreover, she added, FCCLA, like FBLA, hopes federal and state governments can continue to provide high school students with the opportunity to earn college credits before they graduate.
“Many of them will finish an associate’s degree when they’re in high school,” Spavone said. “Many of the areas we cover haven’t gotten the attention they deserve, but with a worker shortage (in the hospitality industry), it’s important to open up the doors.”
