Local schools embrace career readiness

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Career readiness. It’s a term that Vantage Career Center and other vocational schools are familiar with, since it’s been their focus for decades. However, traditional school districts such as Van Wert City Schools — who in the past stressed that a college education was crucial to succeeding in life — are now seeing the reality that there are good-paying jobs available to high school graduates prepared to take them.

That change in attitude is not one that has been an easy one for traditional school districts, a fact that Van Wert High School Principal Bob Priest acknowledged following a presentation he and VWHS guidance counselor Kerry Koontz made to local business and government leaders Thursday.

The local school officials were looking for ways to bring information to students about well-paying jobs and careers in the community, and seeking an investment from the business community to provide job shadowing, internships, and other opportunities for students seeking career information.

Priest and Koontz also talked about creating new educational curriculums to better train students for local career opportunities, although Priest added that, realistically, schools can’t prepare students for every job opportunity.

School programs would also focus on teaching “soft skills” — how to better communicate, create resumes, promote oneself in an interview, work with others on a team, and how to behave on the job — in addition to the traditional academic courses.

Thursday’s presentation is just one indication that traditional schools are starting to acknowledge the fact that, with the high cost of the college, coupled with the availability of lots of good-paying technical and other skilled jobs, college is probably not a viable — or even preferred — option for many students.

VWCS Superintendent Ken Amstutz also spoke briefly on what he learned as part of a national committee that deals with career readiness questions — information that led him to challenge Priest and his staff to come up with programs to better serve students’ career needs.

Lincolnview and Crestview also had representatives at the presentation, as did Vantage Career Center.

Vantage Superintendent Staci Kaufman said she was encouraged by Thursday’s presentation, while mildly criticizing traditional schools for not always serving students’ best interests in the area of career preparation.

“We don’t always see the students enroll at Vantage that should be steered in that direction,” Kaufman said, while also commending local schools for trying to adapt to today’s educational realities. “It’s not a new idea, but it’s vital.”

The Vantage superintendent said both private and public sectors need to be on the same page before parents’ mindsets will change on the idea that kids need college to be successful.

Local government leaders, a big part of that crucial public-private partnership, were pleased with Thursday’s message.

“This is a new paradigm … we’ve got to start looking at, not what’s best for us, as a school, but what’s best for our kids, and I think this is going to translate into what’s best for our community,” County Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger said. “I love the notion that there’s some alignment of education with what the business world needs.”

Commissioner Todd Wolfrum, who has spearheaded local efforts to keep local students in the county following high school graduation, was particularly pleased to hear educators starting to talk about the same ideas.

“Hearing the kinds of thinks Bob and Kerry are talking about is really encouraging,” Wolfrum said. “It’s good to hear people who can actually implement these programs talking about it.”

Van Wert Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Susan Munroe called the presentation a “natural continuation” of discussions her organization has promoted among the business community on the subject of career readiness. She also said she likes the idea of a public/private partnership.

“The Chamber feels strongly about the fact that this will be most successful if we work as one county team,” she added.

While traditional schools are beginning to see the light on career readiness, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to change the mindset of parents convinced that college is the key to their children’s future success.

Noting that he has two children still in school, Priest said he had a conversation this past summer with his youngest daughter, an eighth-grader at Van Wert Middle School, about college. “She said, ‘but what if I don’t want to go to college?’ and I said, ‘you’re going,’” Priest said, adding that he now regretted his “do what I say” attitude. “What I should have done was listen, and ask ‘why don’t you want to go?’ and ‘what would you like to do?’”

The VWHS principal went on to say that many parents of school-age children still have the mindset he had six months ago. “That’s a difficult mindset to change,” he said.

But the change is necessary, considering that today’s college graduates owe an average of nearly $30,000 in school-related debt, while less than a third of those who start college will finish with a four-year degree.

Lichtensteiger said changing parental mindsets is crucial to better preparing students for available careers.

“We have to fight our way through the notion that every parent says to themselves: ‘My child has to have a four-year degree’,” he said, adding, though, that his own son is a good example of a parent saying his children will all need to go to college.