Why Students are Choosing Career and Technical Courses

In a question and answer session, Health Services seniors in a low-income area high-school, were asked three questions. 1. "Why did you choose to take this program?" 2. "How does this program differ from your academic courses?" and 3. " What would you choose for a career if CTE courses weren't available?"

The overwhelming response to question one, "Why did you take this program?" was that 100% of the students wanted to go into nursing or a health care field. In addition to this response many felt the Health Services program would give them a head start on their career and would help them when they got into college.

The second question, "How does this program differ from your academic classes?" was again an overwhelming response; with academic courses, they didn't receive the hands-on experiences they had with CTE, and academic courses were "all textbooks and reading"; they learned from doing hands-on experiences. One particular student stated" this program differs from my academic classes because I feel more at ease and comfortable with this class, I like it and it is what I am interested in."

With the the third question, "What would you choose for a career if CTE courses weren't available?" The answers varied somewhat, one student stated she would take over her father's business, some responses were they would go into teaching, others stated they would still go into nursing, and one response was " I guess I would not even go on to college because I am just not interested in all of the academic classes."

We find students have a desire to learn when they find something they are interested in. The key is to find out what that desire is, and nurture it. We may have to go about nurturing their desire to learn in different ways, it may be hands on experiences, reading books, computers or a combination of all. The important thing is that programs be available for where ever their desires may lie.