Home Nontraditional careers

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Home Nontraditional careers
Mixing it Up Table of Contents
1. Why is this important for CTE?
2. Talking points for students parents
3. Creating a friendly environment for both sexes
4. Preventing harassment in the CTE classroom
5. How a prizewinning school increased enrollment
6. Steps to a career event of your own
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Home Nontraditional careers
Dudes Divas How one North Dakota school
district persuaded girls and guys to consider
nontraditional careers.
Key points
It's a problem that is familiar to any technical
education teacher A sea of expectant faces
gathers for instruction in Welding 101. Not one
of them is female. Or eager students participate
in class assignments in Nursing. Not one of them
is male.
Class after class, semester after semester, the
class composition looks pretty much the same.
Pretty soon--to teachers and administrators
alike--the gender barrier begins to seem
insurmountable.
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Programs Practices that Work
Given that increasing nontraditional enrollment
is a good thing, how do you go about it?
Other states have done it. By following their
model we can increase enrollment in Virginia too.
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Home Nontraditional careers
1. Why is this important for CTE?
2. Talking points for students parents
6. Steps to a career event of your own
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Home Nontraditional careers
Steps To A Nontraditional Career Event
Contents
Most schools hold Career Fairs that showcase
dozens of different jobs in one sitting. While
these events are certainly useful for acquainting
students with a wide range of careers, they are
not necessarily useful for getting them to
consider nontraditional jobs, much less to for
getting them to getting them to enroll in a
nontraditional CTE course. That's because most
kids have already formed opinions about what
kinds of careers are appropriate for them. It may
never occur to a girl to give electrical
engineering serious consideration--until she
actually meets a woman electrical engineer, that
is. A boy may never even consider a job as a
paralegal--until he actually has the opportunity
to meet another guy who is one. Neither is likely
to seek out information on these careers strictly
on their own whim.
Task list An editable checklist of tasks to help
you keep on top of planning.
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Home Nontraditional careers
1. Why is this important for CTE?
2. Talking points for students parents
6. Steps to a career event of your own
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Home Nontraditional careers
What kind of nontraditional career event should
you hold?
Contents
You've heard about Minot Public School's
award-winning programs. Now you want to replicate
one at your school. How do you get started? What
kind of event should you hold? Should you go
large or small? Should you involve only teachers
or ask for help from the community? Where will
the money come from? To get started, look at
Minot's programs. Read the descriptions. Maybe
you want to replicate one of the in your own
school, or maybe you want to do a version of
something similar. Maybe you want to do something
completely different. Whatever you think you may
want to do, you probably can decide the scope and
reach of your event by asking yourself the
following questions
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Home Nontraditional careers
1. Why is this important for CTE?
2. Talking points for students parents
6. Steps to a career event of your own
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Home Nontraditional careers
Which courses to target?Automotive technology or
electrical appliance repair? Dental hygiene or
administrative assisting?
Key points
Unless you have a big budget, you can't target
all your CTE courses this year. Try targeting
those
Deciding which courses to feature during a
nontraditional career fair can be pretty
daunting. So where do you begin? You can start
by taking a closer look at male and female
enrollment figures for CTE courses at your
school. Some courses--such as marketing,
photography or keyboarding--usually do well at
attracting both male and female students. Others
seem to habitually attract just one gender or the
other. Whenever this happens it's a real shame,
since schools could probably boost their general
CTE enrollment numbers just by attracting more
girls and guys into courses where there are few.
And of course, it's a shame for students who
could be enrolled in hot fields like nursing and
who are missing out on some great future job
opportunities. Once you see which courses are
lagging in males and females, you can make a
list. Your list can serve as a base from which
you can consider building a nontraditional career
day.
Find facts and statistics to help
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Home Nontraditional careers
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Home Nontraditional careers
1. Why is this important for CTE?
2. Talking points for students parents
6. Steps to a career event of your own
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Home Nontraditional careers
Getting the community involved
Key points
A good way to give your career day event some
sparkle is to recruit speakers from the
community. Nontraditional workers who can recount
their own personal on-the-job experiences have a
special impact on students that supersedes any
general talk given by an educator. Minot school
district was able to capitalize on its proximity
to a military base to recruit speakers. Those of
you near military bases should not overlook this
valuable resource. However, if there's no
military base in your neighborhood, don't
despair. There are plenty of other places where
you might find ready and willing speakers. Begin
with large employers who are likely to have the
employees and resources to help you out. Try
calling the local phone company, the local power
company or the cable company. Call your local
community college, which should be a good source
of information. (Find community college websites
here.) Also contact your community college's
Workforce Development Office which already has
partnerships with employers who might be able to
lend you a hand. Brainstorm a list of employers
with the sorts of occupations you have courses
for. You can also find the names, addresses and
phone numbers of businesses in your area that
employ people in occupations that interest you at
the employer locator run by America's
CareerInfoNet.
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Home Nontraditional careers
1. Why is this important for CTE?
2. Talking points for students parents
6. Steps to a career event of your own
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Home Nontraditional careers
Getting Teachers to Support Your Event
Key points
Any successful nontraditional career event
requires the support and effort--not just of
administrators and community members--but of
course, teachers. What's the best way to make
teachers as enthusiastic about your event as you
are? Make their participation simple and
rewarding. The event should fit within teachers'
existing schedules. Making the day just one more
day of work isn't likely to garner much
enthusiasm. In addition, teachers should be
rewarded or compensated in some way for their
participation. More time off, extra pay, or a
special gift or prize is likely to encourage more
teacher participation. Finally, and perhaps most
importantly, teachers need to see the value of
the nontraditional career event. You need to
impart that the event isn't just about "social
engineering" but has real practical value for
both increasing CTE enrollment and for bettering
students' odds of success in the job
market. Start with ONE conversation with a
dedicated teacher. Describe the idea and ask for
his or her suggestions. Explore the obstacles, as
well as ideas that might motivate teachers to get
excited about the event. Be sure to discuss the
timing of the program. The program should be a
length, and at a time of the school year, that
works well for teachers and coincides with
material they will already be covering in their
classrooms. You might also discuss with your
teacher ways in which the career event can help
teachers meet instructional requirements.
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Home Nontraditional careers
1. Why is this important for CTE?
2. Talking points for students parents
6. Steps to a career event of your own
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Home Nontraditional careers
Marketing your nontraditional career event
Key points
How come half your students wear the same brand
of athletic shoe? Why do all the kids love to sip
Coke instead of water? Why do most of your
students carry a certain brand of backpack or a
certain make of cellphone? Simple answer
Marketing. And just as with the big companies
that so successfully market clothes,
blackberries, shoes and cellphones to your
students, YOU need to do some clever marketing as
well, if you hope to run a successful
nontraditional career event. Okay, so
admittedly, athletic shoes, IPODs, and cellphones
are easy to market, but how will you get students
excited about something as staid as a career
day? Here's how Keep the interests of your
students in mind. Your selling point should be
Dont miss out on great opportunities just
because youre a boy/girl.
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Home Nontraditional careers
More
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Home Nontraditional careers
1. Why is this important for CTE?
2. Talking points for students parents
6. Steps to a career event of your own
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Home Nontraditional careers
Minot Schools increased enrollment by emphasized
hands on experiences. Here some of the
activities they offered and pictures of Minot
students trying new things.
Preparing a banquet
Spraypainting
Making pasta
Visiting an ambulance
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Home Nontraditional careers
1. Why is this important for CTE?
2. Talking points for students parents
6. Steps to a career event of your own
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Home Nontraditional careers
Evaluating this year's event preparing for the
next one
Key points
Whew! It's over! But was it a
success? Frankly, the only way to know for sure
whether your nontraditional career event has been
a real success is to do it for several years,
hopefully getting better each time. Even so,
there are ways that you can begin to evaluate how
well your event worked, right from the
outset. Hand out evaluation forms to
participants. One tool that will be critical in
helping you improve your event next time around
is the written evaluation. You need evaluations
from teachers and guests, as well as students who
participated to help refine your program. We've
made some sample evaluations in Word for
teachers/speakers and for students. You will need
to edit these to make sure they get the
information you most need about your event.
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AN INVITATION TO JOIN OUR PILOT PROJECT
Home Nontraditional careers
We are looking for 3 school districts to be
partners in this project. Partner districts will
receive up to 500 to support an event or program
intended to increase nontraditional enrollment.
Well help you. And youll help schools
throughout Virginia.
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Be a partner, even if youre not a Partner
Even if youre not one of our Partners, wed like
to hear from you and help others learn from your
experiences.