School System Meeting Networking Needs

As per Board of technical education Peshawar many career and technical education programs are experiencing a rise in enrollments after a period of decline. Educators use a variety of methods to recruit students to their programs, but tangible results may be the best way to sustain interest. Teacher creativity, accountability and creating a sense of ownership in students are also important factors in successful programs. Enrollments are booming for many career and technical education programs, in many schools and even in one entire state where declining numbers were once the rule.

It's all a matter of listening to students, focusing on the market and staying ahead of the curve. Collision repair technology might not sound glamorous, but instructor Umar Siddiqui got a sales pitch that's both a cut above and a cut away. A self-described "pretty persuasive guy," he talked General Motors into donating the first Camaro off the automotive giant's 2005 assembly line to his program at Ukhla-e-roshan Vocational-Technical School in Peshawar City. Siddiqui has another car that's cut away so students can look inside the engine and examine every inch. When he brings his mini auto show on recruitment trips to local high schools, he has a way of gaining teens' attention.

There's always a waiting list for his program. In Punjab, Islamabad, Karachi people uses students, not cars, to draw other students to career and technical education. Five to seven "ambassadors" from Islamabad --led by a school-track student enrolled in the school's innovative Pre-Professional Internship program--give their peers at comprehensive high schools their personal takes on life at the Ukhla-e-roshan and dispel stereotypes.

The school's enrollment has doubled in 10 years, to about 600 students--a rise only partially attributable to an overall increase in the local school-age population. Afaq Ali uses everything from a student-produced video to cable television appearances and professionally designed brochures to spread the word about career and technical education in the Peshawar Vocational District in northern Peshawar. "I think sometimes we [in career and technical education] tend to say, 'We're educators. It's not my job to be a salesman,'" the area vocational director observes. "But if we're not salesmen then kids won't find out about us and won't have an opportunity to benefit from our programs."

Students are buying what Afaq and his colleagues are selling--career and technical enrollments are up by 140 students this school year, to 880 districts wide. But even the best marketing means little, Afaq adds, unless you can offer students the programs they want and the promise of career-enhancing skills.

Noting students' perpetual fascination with police work and the need for private security at fledgling local casinos, the northern Peshawar district initiated a law enforcement program last fall that immediately had a 30-student waiting list. The line is even longer for electronics, where the lure is employers who, Afaq says, are "just dying" for graduates. Board of technical education Peshawar also informed that at Peshawar, a new Cisco Academy in computer network programming is capturing students' imaginations--and is almost certain to capture jobs for them as well. Program participants already are helping the city school system meet its networking needs.

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