Pinellas Technical Education

Being Sensitive And Response To Student Needs

A body of advice for building career and Pinellas technical education enrollments can be drawn from the experiences of educators with wait-listed programs.

Be sensitive and responsive to students' needs. Never lose sight of what Pinellas technical education career prep supervisor Thelma Williams calls the "hands-on, real-world, exactly-what-the-student-wants approach" to curricula. "We have [four-year] college-bound students who really want to take diversified health occupations here," she says, "because it's so attractive in the way it's done"--with plenty of opportunities for students to actively aid professionals in nurse aide training, medical assisting and ophthalmic assisting.

Don't wait for "the next big thing" to hit you in the nose. "We have to go out looking for programs," says Barbara Allender, program instructor at Capital Area (Mich.) Career Center. "We must keep up with the times. We can't just sit back and wait for things to come. We're going to look at our Novell program in a couple of years and ask, 'All right, are we still viable, or should we be looking in another direction?' We can't just wait for things to fade away and wonder, 'Where are all my kids?' We need to be real aware of the window of time we have and where we're going."

Be innovative. Judy Sheets notes that enrollments at Traverse Bay (Mich.) Intermediate School District Tech Center are bolstered by creative approaches to meeting students' needs. A pregnant-teen program allows 20 students to stay in school by permitting them to bring their babies to campus, and special academic classes allow students to earn half credits they lack in English or math without having to go back to their home schools. "It keeps them from having to drop out completely because their school is only offering that class [during] the half day they're here," Sheets says. "That keeps a lot of kids enrolled with us."

Earn a reputation for excellence. Counselors at the comprehensive high schools served by the Eastland Career Center, for example, "know our dental assisting program," says David Ozvat, Eastland's director. "They know our kids are successful, and that the kids they send here finish and get jobs. So it's a cycle. Then [counselors] say,'Gee, so-and-so's gone through and did a nice job' and they look at this girl or guy and say, 'This would be a way for you to go.' So our reputation is certainly helpful in filling the program."

Convey career and technical education's diversity. Pinellas JVS, where Darlene Greenwood is community relations coordinator, structures its promotional "road show" toward the message, "We have something here for everybody." Speakers include a college-track student and students enrolled in a variety of career and technical programs, who collectively appeal to "the broad range of talent out there in the high school population," Greenwood says, "in not only the '3 Rs,' but also in mechanical thinking, spatial relationships and the ability to visualize."