Asser 1 Ben Asser ENG 102 Hassan 11 October 2011 High School is not Vocational Training Society places

a burden on high school students to go to college; whether its from the federal incentives, or the psychological pressures. However, the global economy is experiencing a shortage of skilled workers that can get the job done right and quickly. The problem starts at secondary educationit lacks a definition. With an immense focus on college preparation and lack of education pertaining to skills, high school is not vocational training. In order to limit the opposing views argument, this paper must define vocational training first. This ensures that each reader will be on the same page following the conclusion of this essay on the explicit definition of high school. Vocational studies involve simple tasks such as welding and carpentry, but the high school setting ought to add in an element of personal growth. Naturally, the substantive successes from vocational education training (VET) create a feeling of accomplishment for high school students. Many vocational schools that are to be attended after completion of secondary education often offer courses in cooking, ITT, and mechanics. These schools include Le Cordon Bleu School, ITT Tech, and UTI Auto Tech School among many others. None of these are free which directly contradicts the tenets of high school. Therefore, high school is not a vocational school. The combination of vocational training and personal growth is called therapeutic educationa nomenclature intended to encompass the caring and helpful attitude of this form of learning. If therapeutic education involves fostering the skills and values generally associated with helping people to gain access to positive social relationships in all spheres of community life, then VET has, arguably, always been a vehicle for promoting such access (Hyland). Hyland

Asser 2 argues that therapeutic education in the form of vocational education training helps students self-esteem and social abilities. Vocational training allows students to succeed in various topics that subsidize a feeling of accomplishment such as creation, innovation, and invention. In addition, Hyland makes the case that vocational training assists with a students relationship to the community. High school is not vocational training because this period of education does not introduce students to technical studies, and thus lacks the important ability to create feelings of accomplishment which fosters emotional growth. The purpose of public high school education involves the personal growth of every student. Secondary education usually involves teenagers between the ages of 14-18. These young men and women are naturally learning about themselves and should be slowly introduced to what adults call the real world. Such internal growth involves greater reflection and emotional intuition. Students enrolled in high school must be influenced to figure out what they are capable of and what their limits are. Moreover, high schools must center their focus on the emotional advancement of teenagers. Todays high schools place a great burden on students to obtain sparkling grade point averages in order to advertise them to universities, but the sole purpose of secondary education is not to weed out the intelligent kids and groom them for college. Furthermore, the curriculum presented by school boards often caters to college-bound students. Students not planning to go to college still end up taking many of the same academic courses, such as pre-calculus, physics, and higher level English. These skills do not provide the technical training for a painter or welder. The courses provided in high school do not consist of vocational training. In addition, the tendency of current high schools to focus on college preparation associates anxiety and stress with learning. The results from vigorous academic training lack substance, and thus a feeling of

Asser 3 reward. A good grade is merely relief from the prospect of failing because a college-bound student expects high marks on their assignments. The current form of high school does not provide the therapeutic properties of VET. Notice how high school is not called college prep those are private schools that many people pay thousands of dollars a year to attend. This form of privatized education falls beyond the scope of this definition as high school is strictly public and free. Yet public high school attempts to exemplify this pre-college attitude in order to advertise their services to parents because funding is partially based on attendance. Any form of college prep is not the same as vocational training. Since this is true, the current definition of high school lacks vocational training since it focuses almost solely on college preparation. The concepts learned in high school are different than those learned in middle school and college. Middle school presents the perfect opportunity to teach students basic academia such as algebra, essay writing, and the simple sciences. The goal of middle school is to prepare kids for hard work and instill discipline. This effectively gives students the best chance to succeed in high school because they would know how to focus and obtain a strong work ethic. Vocational training in middle school is pointless because the students are still being prepared for their eventual life decisions. A good work ethic and discipline will serve students well in whichever field they end up in. A college education advances the academic learning for white-collar job seekers. Universities attempt to prepare young adults for office work, lab work, and the professional setting. Among the college academics, time management skills and independence is stressed. Harvard University states their mission: The support the College provides to students is a foundation upon which self-reliance and habits of lifelong learning are built: Harvard expects that the scholarship and collegiality it fosters in its students will lead them in their later lives to

Asser 4 advance knowledge, to promote understanding, and to serve society (Lewis). Clearly, the point of higher education is to expand knowledge, and give back to the society. Unfortunately, Harvard will not teach a student how to cook. Neither middle schools nor colleges address vocational training. High school must be the time for students to learn these vocations, but it is not. High schools thrive when students are engaged and not dropping out. A common reason for dropping out of high school is money and the ability to get a job. Lower class families often rely on their children to start making money as soon as they can. However, vocational skills have the ability to keep teenagers in school because they prepare these students for reasonable careers. The typical student in my class is prepared to keep going to school for the rest of his or her career, Smith said. With IT, you have to love learning because the field is based on constant reinvention of the product (Allen). IT is a great vocational skill because its constant evolution negates boredom. Many other vocations present the same sense of love for learning because the fields constantly update. When high school students love what they are learning and understand that they can eventually turn their skills into a career, students will be more likely to stay in school and start a successful life. However, the drop-out rates are currently high and graduating students lack job skills which clearly shows that high school is not vocational training. Employers identify three major hurdles to regional job creation - namely poor educational standards, the lack of skilled manpower and the work ethic. The education system does not produce people who match the demands of the labour market. The basic problem across the whole region is skills (Siddiqi). Schools do not teach students how to work in the actual job force. Teenagers are bombarded with meaningless information and expected to apply higher level algebra with carpentry or cooking. High school is not giving these helpless students the skills that vocational training does.

Asser 5 Some countries, specifically Australia and the Netherlands, have incorporated a greater emphasis on VET in their curriculums which have produced favorable results. These countries defy the current definition that high school is not vocational training. Holland has learned to rely on a vocational education and a system of initiatives to keep children in school and motivated for the work force. Based on these principles, a combination of incentives, rewards, and programmatic initiatives are keeping an impressive number of young people in school through the completion of a qualification (Hoffman). The Netherlands have dramatically reduced their dropout rates by 20% in five years because of this new way of schooling. Australia has enacted several similar principles with regards to their education system:
A National Youth Participation Requirement requires all young people to participate in schooling (or an approved equivalent) to Year 10, and then participate full time (at least 25 hours per week) in education, training, or employment, or a combination of these activities, until age 17 (Hoffman).

This requirementwhich also offers incentives to staying in schoolallows students to mix education, training, and work during their final two years of high school. In January 2010, Australia started offering vulnerable students prevocational training so that they could attain an apprenticeship upon completion of their courses. Unlike American education, this kind of high school is close to vocational training. Unfortunately, much of the educational advances in the Netherlands and Australia focus on the vulnerable students rather than making it a main focus for all teenagers. The inclusion of vocational training into the high school curriculum has become a globally pressing issue and the current definition of secondary education will change to meet students needs and a countrys economic desires. As already discussed, VET allows students to associate accomplishment with learning. Every student must be able to find and take classes that could potentially motivate them to find a job that they will love or be successful at. Not everyone

Asser 6 has the intrinsic motivation to become a doctor or lawyer, and blue-collar jobs such as carpentry and IT are still highly valued in todays society as manufacturing maintains a key role in the global economy. While IT may not have been their first career choice when they began in the workforce, they are finding that along with healthcare, the IT field is surviving and thriving in the economic downturn (Allen). This fact alone should cause all high students to demand a greater emphasis on IT training in their curriculum. Additionally, high school will introduce teenagers to the possibilities associated with IT, culinary arts, and mechanics for purely economic reasons:
Nurturing younger human resources by placing greater emphasis on science and technology, particularly ICT, in higher education, will spur solid growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where 60% of the population is below 25 years of age. A skilled labour force is essential for firms to thrive and compete in global markets; it fosters the ability of companies to innovate and to adopt new technologies (Siddiqi).

Vocational training during secondary education creates jobs in many ways. First of all, a skilled worker is highly employable in the current job market. Secondly, innovative ideas brought by the new workers could spur job creation since the entrepreneurial spirit would be more likely to increase with the access to efficient work. The problem introduced by a lack of skilled young workers is global, and must be addressed starting in high school. Much of the global population is part of the younger demographic, but many either enter the professional office setting of the workforce after completing an expensive college curriculum or become minimum-wage-earning unskilled workers that bag groceries or man the cash machine. This rift in the upper and lower classes is socially unacceptable and creating more opportunities for teenagers to find skilled jobs is essential to the eventual progression of the global economy. It is important to change this definition because the lack of skilled blue-collar workers is destroying US and global manufacturing and causing mass unemployment in the white collar job market. Furthermore, dropout rates remain excruciatingly high causing a rift between the upper

Asser 7 and lower class. High school lacks any aspect of vocational training which is evident in the high dropout rates, lack of skilled workers, and the constant focus on the mantra college for all. The sad reality is that the burden of all teenagers to receive college education places young adults in debt, demeans the college degree, and separates the haves from the have-nots. A focus on vocational training would build the middle class back up. As the current situation stands, there is a shrinking middle class because high school is not vocational training.

Works Cited

Asser 8 Allen, Peg. "IT FIELD PROVIDES SOME STABILITY for Workers Changing Careers." Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers 86.2 (2011): 36-39.Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. Hoffman, Nancy. "Keeping Youths in School." Phi Delta Kappan 92.5 (2011): 8-13. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. Hyland, Terry. "Vocational education and training and the therapeutic turn." Educational Studies (03055698) 32.3 (2006): 299-306. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. Lewis, Harry R. "What is Harvard's Mission Statement?." Harvard University. N.p., 23 Feb 1997. Web. 27 Oct 2011. <http://www.harvard.edu/faqs/mission-statement>. Siddiqi, Moin. "Creating jobs for global markets." Middle East 420 (2011): 33-37. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.