What's in a Name?

Overview & Synopsis

When the American Vocational Association changed its name to the Association for Career and Technical Education, it underscored the need for today's vocational educators to focus on both career education and technical education. The name change reflects the fact that today's work environment, labor market, and employment opportunities are very different from those that existed in the early 1900s when vocational education first became popular. The name change should also be a call for comprehensive career education efforts at the K-12 level, combined with a call for greatly increased technical education efforts at the postsecondary level. Comprehensive career education must achieve the following goals: (1) show students the importance of assigned work tasks and how employed workers need and use the basic academic skills and other skills emphasized in the Secretary's Commission on Necessary Skills report; (2) reward work (including classroom work) when it occurs; (3) introduce variety into the workplace (classroom) by combining textbook and experiential learning and using business/industry persons as classroom resources; and (4) emphasize and reward the practice of productive work habits. The "technical education" component of "Association for Career and Technical Education" refers to all postsecondary career-oriented programs operating at the sub-baccalaureate level. (Contains 40 references.) (MN)