22 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY december 5-11, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com Local school districts are expanding career and technical education programs, reframing the way we think about education. By Celia Jiménez Learn By Doing In a classroom at Marina High School, 16-year-old Vivianah Navarro and her classmates are measuring how much liquid a dozen spoons and several graduated cylinders can hold. These measurements are not just an abstract exercise in volume. Navarro is enrolled in the Patient Care & Personal Wellness Career Technical Education class at Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, studying pharmacology—and understanding which spoons are most accurate matters for measuring dosages. In addition to learning about different health-related fields, Navarro and her classmates—some are learning veterinary basics, others digital imaging— have volunteer opportunities that emphasize learning new skills. “We partner with Global Health Brigade virtually, and they have a clinic experience in Honduras,” teacher Vanesa Cano says. Students join via Zoom and perform patient intake interviews, alongside a Brigade physician on the ground. Cano’s class offers 14 different modules, each focused on a different career within the health care industry. Every three weeks, students move into a different module and explore at least five during the class. High school is increasingly about more than preparing students to get a spot at university. It is a place where students can explore different industries, professions and careers paths via Career Technical Education (CTE) courses, as well as volunteer and internships opportunities. This approach is designed to provide students with different pathways to continue their education in the same field after graduation, or to provide them enough skills to land an entry-level job right after high school. For decades, getting a college degree was the primary goal pushed in K-12 education. In the early 2000s, college education was the emphasis. Nicolas Defendis, a biology teacher and CTE instructor at Soledad High School, remembers the message delivered when he was a student: “If you don’t go to college, you’re not going to be anything. You’re not going to be able to make money,” he recalls hearing. “They really just started to put vocational training to the side.” Over time, a lack of skilled trade workers, workforce changes during the pandemic, an acute shortage of workers in different industries—including health care and education—and the increasing cost of college education have helped shift the focus away from preparation for a four-year college degree, broadening to focus on readiness for associate’s degrees, certifications or directly for a career. Trade skills are making a comeback. Daniel Dreifuss
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