Beckley, WV (WOAY) – By 2031, an estimated 72 percent of jobs will require some form of post-secondary education, according to Georgetown University.
For many, higher education means going to a four-year college or university. For others, learning a trade at vocational school is a more direct path to their goals.
Rick Snuffer, the high school electrical instructor at Beckley’s Academy of Careers and Technology, weighed in on the differences between trade school and college and what sets ACT’s programs apart:
“Having been to both, I mean, there’s similarities and there’s differences. There’s a lot of lecture time that goes on in here… But then we try to take what we learn in the classroom and actually bring it out here into the shop and demonstrate hands-on, so it becomes more than just theory.”
Welding instructor Jason Hatfield says some students learn more effectively in the trade-school environment:
“A lot of the kids, you know, learn so much better from actual hands-on activities instead of reading it in a textbook… 90% of the time we’re out in the shop, you know, getting our hands dirty, burning metal, stuff like that.”
Snuffer says the kinds of hands-on classwork in their two-year programs are geared towards career-readiness:
“That’s one of the big things about career technical education. They want US to give students real-world experience… So our students and some eighth graders built this house behind US. And then after they build it, we wire it.”
Dental assisting instructor Heather Fogus explains how her students get to work in the field as a part of their curriculum:
“First year: a lot of bookwork… And in their second year, they actually get matched with an office here in town, and they get to go work clinically with those dentists here in Raleigh County four days a week, and actually get to practice what they’ve learned over the past couple of years. So it really lets the students see if it’s something they do want to stay in the field and work as a dental assistant, or maybe they want to advance and go on to college for dental hygiene.”
Making choices about your future in high school can be daunting, but choosing trade school isn’t necessarily a final decision.
“If you’re on the fence about what you want to do, it’s especially important for students as well as their parents to understand that it’s not an either-or. So if you’re in high school and you really think you want to do dental assisting or one of the other classes we have here, give it a try, see if you like it. If not, then you’re not out anything. Or if you love it and you want to continue on in that field, you can still go to college.”
Snuffer adds that many of his students learning electrical work are already gearing up for college:
“A lot of my students that I’ve got in class now are taking dual credit. They’re taking AP, we’ve got engineering students that are brilliant… We can teach you skills you need in college. We’re big on 21st-century skills: communication, teamwork, research.”
One major barrier to college is the financial burden. For many, trade school is a more affordable path to a career, but also a means to pay for further education down the road.
“You can go into a trade, and you can make six figures your first year out of high school… If they want to go to college, we can help them get there and pay for it… Whatever their goals are—college, trade, military—here at the Academy of Careers and Technology, we can help them get to that goal. And if they don’t know what it is, we can help them figure out what it is.”
For information about ACT’s high school and adult programs, visit wvact.net.
