The Perkins Act of 2004 authorized vocational education commonly referred to as the career and technical education (CTE). The career and technical education is an education program that seeks to equip students with real world experiences for jobs that are either paid or none paid in the field that does not require the current formal education such as a degree (Brustein, 2006).
The programs offered aim at developing student’s skills in problem solving, reasoning, and occupational skills specific to the area of interest of the student with the main aim of developing these students into an independent member of the society and contributor to the economic growth of the country.
Through H. R 4496, the Perkins Act was reauthorized by the house committee on workforce and education in the year 2004. This Act authorizes the Perkins Act for six years instead of the normal five years. Through this Act, title II of the initial Act of 1998 was repealed. The repealed title provided funding Tech Pre Programs. Repealing the Tech Pre Program provision, the Act effectively eliminated the separate funding for tech programs.
Instead, they combined the fund into the basic state grant. The act also reduces the amount of funding to areas such as Guam (Wang & King, 2008). Through the bill all states will receive funding which should not be less than the funds allocated under the previous model where there was tech preprogram and basic state grants.
The bill also reserves a percentage of funding as incentive grants. Though there is loss of funding, the amendments in the act will bring many positive changes to students which include a technical education and academic participation that are more challenging and rigorous.
There is also lack of set standards in the area that are clear to all potential employees in this field. As a result, there is low motivation on the part of students, teachers and other professionals which bars them from getting interested into this field. Perking Act now provides set out procedures in areas that are able to set standards of operations. These standards are expected to give clarification of students’ performance and expectations in the program.
Therefore, an institution’s management can now develop a clear job description through which it can engage the employees. The students will also have a clear idea of what is expected of them which will now help in the development of the skills needed for successful careers.
This will facilitate the development of careers that are industrial oriented in order to prepare the students in the job market once they graduate. The standards are also supposed to improve quality of education offered in learning institutions since there will be a level playing ground of the established curriculum.
Through provision of funding by the Perkings Act, the number of students taking the program is expected to rise. The funding is also able to improve working conditions of employees in this area. Perkins Act also calls for participation of technical and academic teachers into the career and technical education program in order to help students to integrate skills learned in schools with the skills taught in the program.
The Act sees the need of involving technical and academic teachers because of their vast experience in technical and career development. Such skills are expected to be very vital to the learning community. This is a positive idea which the state, colleges, and other institutions should embrace.
The inclusion of academic teachers will help technical students to adapt to the technical program easily which will be a morale booster to the technical teachers as well as to the students. Using this as a selling point, the institution can attract professionals into this job and also be able to maintain the status quo (Hernández & Blank, 2008).
Through Perkins IV Act there is establishment of a link between education and business world. The main emphasis, however, is on occupations with high demand. The demand for career and technical professionals is very high. Therefore, the state, colleges and other institutions should employ resources under their disposal to encourage development of skills that can be employed later into this field.
The level of accountability should also be increased in the employment of graduates in the field of CTE (Brustein, 2006). Accountability is considered important by employees and it’s a factor that many look into. Therefore, in order to attract and retain teachers, professional and counselors, the level of accountability must be increased by the state, colleges and other institutions offering career and technical education.
According to Hernández and Blank (2008), the requirement of the Perkins Act is on the need of performance of science based research; their evaluations to enhance the development of skilled professionals in these areas should be exploited in order to attract employees and retain them.
Science based research is said to engineer discoveries that eventually become beneficial to the entire country thus saving resources since many research discoveries improve ways of doing things. The potential for growth academically and career promised by this provision is able to generate motivation that can help to attract employees and retain them.
Various measures should be put in place to ensure professional from other businesses interested in the career as technical educators are actually qualified and able to carry out their functions as CTE. These professionals should be equipped with the necessary skills through programs prepared for the purpose. Professionals already in the career and technical education field should be involved in this role. They should help these other professional to settle down in the industry and provide guidelines on what is expected of them.
Some of the issues that need to be addressed include the level of skills and education possessed by these professionals, the type of work experience and their ability to be assimilated into the career and technical education program. These professionals should seek certification which should be granted only after completion of a course aimed at familiarizing them with the CTE expectations in terms of performance and skills. It should be realized that the success of any organization lies in the level of competence of its employees.
Therefore, there is a need to try to attract skilled and highly experienced professionals into business. To do this, an organization should clearly define duties and responsibilities of person they intend to hire. The recruitment process should be transparent enough to win the confidence of the professionals. To retain these, professionals require more than just a good salary. The organization should show accountability and should also be challenging enough to offer opportunities for growth.
References
Brustein, M. (2006). Perkins act of 2006: The official guide. Alexandria, VA: Association for Career and Technical Education.
Hernández, V.M., & Blank, W. (2008). Teaching English Language Learners in Career and Technical Education Programs. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Wang, V. C., & King, K. P. (2008).Innovations in Career and Technical Education: Strategic Approaches Towards Workforce Competencies Around the Globe. New York: IAP.