Posts Tagged ‘Vocational education’

Should Schools Teach Career Skills?

Monday, May 24th, 2010
Our hope for our children is that school prepares them to meet the real world and equips them with the skills to succeed. In order to accomplish this task, schools should teach career skills. Part of teaching career skills is helping students discover their career ambitions. When students identify these ambitions, their strengths, and weaknesses then they can prepare for their future careers. Moreover, they have goals to strive for and will be intrinsically motivated to aim for these goals.
This past Wednesday on the #PTCHAT educators, parents, principals, and other stakeholders gathered to discuss the most effective ways to teach career goals.

Here were some of the great ideas shared:
Parentella: Good evening everyone! Let’s get started. Should schools teach career skills?
cybraryman1: I always felt that career ed should be infused into all subject areas and on all grade levels
pughamy: the career skills we need to teach are problem solving, communication, collaboration
BmoreSchools: Teach career skills like giving students hands on job experiences? or incorporating career skills into classroom instruction?
GaryBrannigan: Regular education is career education. Employers want people who can communicate, problem solve, relate to others…
reaneawilson: career day at the elementary level is a great beginning
readtoday: In the early grades teachers can invite parents to school to discuss their jobs. Builds a bridge

EDUCATIONCEO: @Parentella I don’t think career training should be separate, unless you are really speaking of vocational training
readywriting: Students need to have opp. to work with their hands see if that is for them. Have ppl come in to talk about those careers.
thenewtag: “Career” skills are life/survival skills & should be immersed/blended into all subjects… not taught in isolation.
mritzius: @Parentella HS students need to be treated like adults by being given more responsibility AND trust
TecumsehJrHigh: We have the gateway course for our 8th graders. Good stuff. Challenging.
dr2b_robin: @readtoday Yes, we had choice of academics or vocational. Vocational included auto mech/body, cosmotology, word processing,
mritzius: @Parentella “Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.” – John Dewey (I vote for hands-on)
EduVulture: I hate the fact that business dictates what we teach our children, education for it’s own sake should be our goal.

Parentella was created to solve the issue of parent and educator communication at elementary, middle school and high school levels. As part of this mission, we are hosting weekly #PTCHAT discussions to encourage a productive dialogue between parents and educators. We hope you will join us Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST.


You may also want to join Parentella on Facebook or follow Parentella on Twitter to keep updated.  We invite you to propose topics for upcoming chats.  View the entire transcript here.

If you are new to following hashtag discussions, you may want to check out this video tutorial on using Tweetdeck for hashtag discussions.

by Shelly Terrell

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in PTChat/EdChat, Shelly Terrell | 1 Comment »