What is Vocational Agriculture? A Powerful Path to Hands-On Learning and Fulfilling Careers
Kody Hanner
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What is Vocational Agriculture? A Powerful Path to Hands-On Learning and Fulfilling Careers
The Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education Act of 1917 was an act of the United States Congress that promoted vocational education in “agriculture, trades and industry, and homemaking” and provided federal funds for this purpose. Home Economics was the only subject in the act for girls.
The Vocational Agriculture Act of 1963 replaced the Smith-Hughes Act. It increased funding to $225 million and allowed for some movement of funding between vocational programs. It also removed the requirement for students to complete a farm project, but opened up options for internships and on-campus school opportunities for SAE (supervised agricultural education).
In 2018, President Donald Trump signed the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, which was the 5th version of the act known as The Carl D. Perkins Center and Technical Education Act of 1984. For short, the most recent act is called the Perkins V, and provides $1.2 billion a year for CTE (Career Technical Education) in secondary and post-secondary education.
How does vocational training work?
Some states have these programs set up to work with community colleges and other programs to allow students an opportunity to graduate from high school with a degree or certificate to join the workforce. However, when I completed a quick review of the results from state CTE programs, the percentage of students able to demonstrate an understanding of the course material was less than 50% overall. I feel like this shows the programs aren’t taken seriously by the schools, and the students and parents are not taking the programs seriously.
How can the government support these programs?
So, why would an employer be willing to hire out of a high school CTE? Personally, I wouldn’t be. The system encourages students to primarily go to college or that they are bound for a fast food job. For students that do go to college, they are currently the least desirable candidates for entry-level jobs. Listen to my podcast, Why Our Nations Kids are Losing Their Jobs, to learn more about why this is. This doesn’t have to be the case! I recently read a book called, A Revolution Down on the Farm by Paul Conkin. He spoke of vocational education as just something that everyone did (of course this was in the 1940’s). But the pull away from vocational education and life skills in exchange for strictly academics in schools has actually had the opposite effect.
Benefits and comparison of vocational education
At one time, an 8th-grade education was all that was necessary unless the students were going to a vocational program or planning for a scholarly career path like education or biblical studies. And, honestly, I’m not even saying that an 8th-grade education is sufficient. But when someone is legally considered an adult and done with their education at 18, there is not always an immediate incentive to continue their education. On top of that, they then quickly find that they are unhireable or only qualified for jobs that do not support a reasonable standard of living.
According to the American Institute of Research, high school graduates who take CTE classes are more likely to be employed after high school, make more money, and avoid poverty. Considering high school graduates are up to four times more likely to receive welfare benefits than someone who has a bachelor’s Degree, why aren’t CTE programs more prevalent?
After searching across several sites, I determined that an entry-level welder with a CTE certificate could make between $18-25 per hour, whereas someone with a Bachelor’s Degree may start in an entry-level position making $25-30 per hour. It costs the government around $5000 on average to aid a student in receiving a Bachelor’s Degree and only about $1800 to fund a CTE program per student. Long-term, lifetime earnings of a college graduate may be higher than the lifetime earnings of a welder (also not as much as one would think), other considerations like not owning student loans, having a jump start on gainful employment, and the welder having less likelihood of needing welfare assistance than their high school graduate peers all should be taken into consideration.
What about homeschoolers?
Another educational trend over the last several years has been the return to homeschooling. Colleges and employers often favor homeschooled students because they tend to demonstrate strong self-motivation, independent learning skills, a personalized curriculum tailored to their interests, often high standardized test scores, and a diverse set of extracurricular activities due to the flexibility of homeschooling, making them well-rounded applicants with a strong academic foundation; this can add a unique perspective to the student body and workforce. This being said, homeschooled students have more opportunities to explore CTE education but not as many resources, especially if their parents are not versed in these topics. So, when we are going on second and third generations of parents not having CTE programs valued, even homeschooled students aren’t taught vocational skills. Plus, many states that do offer CTE through the high schools, do not allow homeschooled students to partake in them, even though the state collects the same amount of tax money.
In closing, this article is not about whether students should go to college or be homeschooled. It’s about supporting and valuing career and technical education for high school students, whether they are college-bound or not (it might help college prep students narrow down their interests earlier). Also, having curriculum or programs available to homeschooled students, especially now that school choice programs are becoming more prevalent.
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