The Importance of Career Education
Having a great career starts with good education.
Have you ever tried to construct your own home? Fix your own HVAC system? Repair your own car? Provide maintenance on the plane you may fly on? Cut your own hair? Give yourself a massage? Network engineer a computer system? Code your own website? Or give yourself an ultrasound? Most people would answer “no” to all or most of these questions.
Now, imagine life without the countless professionals trained in many careers that are necessary and critical for everyday life… Imagine what public infrastructure would be like if bridges and pipelines did not use trained welders… Imagine going to fine restaurants without properly trained chefs and culinary professionals cooking the meal... Imagine going to medical facilities and not having educated nurses and allied health professionals caring for patients and administering the medical process... Or, imagine a transportation distribution system without certified and safe truck drivers… If it weren’t for career education, all of these scenarios would be a reality.
Career education trains and educates students for specific career fields, often in jobs that are in high-demand. Career education is very diverse, and includes everything from the traditional hard trades like; construction, HVAC, welding, plumbing, and more… to auto-mechanics, aviation maintenance, motorcycle repair, cosmetology, massage, business, computers, culinary arts, and much, much more.
Career education is different from general liberal arts education, which typically is intended to strengthen general intellectual capacities and teach students to a broader array of subjects. Career education teaches to specific professional and vocational skills. Career education often teaches both the trade and technical skills (or “hard skills”) required for a specific job, along with other non-technical skills and “soft skills” necessary to educate the student to every aspect of a particularly career.
The primary goal of most career education programs is to get a student trained and educated in a specific set of skills necessary to be hired and successfully perform a desired career occupation or need of an employer. Because career education is focused more on specific skills and less on general studies like liberal arts programs, career education programs often take less time to complete and often less expense. The goal is to educate and train the student properly for their chosen career field, see them through graduation, and get them placed in a job in their chosen career field as quickly as possible.
America currently has a recognized “Skills Gap.” Business leaders, economists, government officials and labor experts often talk about how there are currently millions of skilled jobs across the country that need filled, but not enough trained employees to fill these jobs. Career education colleges and schools are the institutions positioned to help fill these needs.