Husted speaks at Vantage ‘Signing Day’

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted has been traveling across the state this week visiting vocational schools to talk about In-Demand Jobs Week. One of his stops was at Vantage Career Center on Friday during an event that underscored the benefits of being prepared for the next step in life.

Signing Day at Vantage is when career-ready Vantage seniors sign up to work for local campanies — often firms they had previously worked for, or interned at, while students.

To the students, it’s a culmination of the two years they’ve spent at Vantage, learning skills and knowledge that have prepared them for the workforce. In all, 32 students signed with 26 area employers in such career fields as welding, carpentry, industrial mechanics, ag and industrial power technology, construction equipment technology, computer networking, precision machining, cosmetology, criminal justice, and electricity (click here for a list of students and companies).

“The CAP Signing Day event is extremely important to me. This day highlights each of us individually and shows to the community and ourselves that we are accomplishing our goals and dreams,” said Bailee Wallace, a Senior Cosmetology student who signed on Friday with Trends Hair Salon. “Our instructors have worked hard to prepare us for this moment and that is something to be proud of. CAP Signing Day was just the start of all of my accomplishments to come.”

The event merely confirmed Husted’s support for career education in Ohio.

“Career centers are the best value in education that exists in this country today,” the lieutenant governor said on Friday, while noting that In-Demand Jobs Week is essentially all about educating people about the opportunities available to students. “It’s about letting them know the kinds of jobs that are being created, the ones that are most in-demand for employers, where you can go get educated and trained to find those jobs, what those jobs pay, and so that you can hopefully educate moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas, students, and anybody who is preparing for a career about what they need to do to prepare themselves in the most effective way.”

Husted said there are lots of high-paying jobs and careers available to students right out of high school, if they’re prepared to fill them.

“if you take advantage of what your high school or career center offers, you don’t need to go to college, because there are plenty of high-paying careers right out of high school if you get an industry-recognized credential or the training that is available right there at your school,” he noted. “But if you go to the career center, that doesn’t mean you can’t go to college, because many of these courses also accumulate college credits.”

Even better, Husted said, instead of students having to foot the entire bill for college or a technical school, as they would if they attended right out of high school, employers often pay the cost of higher education in a related field because it makes workers even more valuable to them.

During his brief speech to students and businesses that participated in Vantage’s Signing Day event, Husted said that, in addition to benefiting students, career education and training at a high school or career center is also an asset to their future employers as well, since those companies save the time need, and cost, of training already-certified employees.

Vantage Superintendent Rick Turner said he was proud of his students, who have worked under challenging conditions the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.