Once a week, 18-year-old Eleanor Rodriguez starts high school at 6 a.m.
But instead of sitting at a desk and solving math problems at Klamath Union High School, she’s checking hospital patients’ vitals, helping them get dressed and monitoring how they’re doing.
She’s working toward 40 hours of clinical rotations as part of a new certified nursing assistant program.
“I could see it as like a pathway to my future goals,” said Rodriguez, who wants to work in neonatology. “It's also a really great way to get some real experience in high school, where I'm graduating with a skill that makes me employable.”
This focus on real-world skills and career relevance is a hallmark of career and technical education, also known as CTE.
The goal is to get students prepared for the real world so they can start working as soon as possible.
From dental assisting to agricultural mechanics
It’s not just about the trades, said Bridgette O’Brien, a teaching specialist at Southern Oregon University. Students are hungry for what she calls career-connected learning.
“They are as aware as any of us that information is so easy to access. They don't necessarily need a download of information in a new form,” she said. “They're looking for something that resonates much more deeply, that they can feel more in their bodies and their hands and their feet.”
Interest in such programs has increased recently. In the last five years, Oregon’s K-12 schools have opened almost 100 new CTE programs.
Grants Pass School launched a dental assisting program this year in partnership with Rogue Community College.
An agricultural mechanics shop in Klamath County School District recently hosted a program for elementary school students to complete woodworking projects aimed at sparking an interest in hands-on learning.
Providence Medical Center partnered with St. Mary’s School to pilot an internship program that allows students to rotate through health care professions.
These programs are effective, too. Almost 98% of high schoolers concentrating in these classes graduate in four years, compared to the statewide average of just 83%.
Two years ago, the state supported this growth with over $7 million in grants.
‘There is possibility’
High schools and colleges aren’t competing for these students. Instead, they’re collaborating.
Rodriguez’s CNA program is part of a new CTE campus that opened in Klamath Falls in the fall. The campus is a partnership between Sky Lakes Medical Center, Klamath County School District, Klamath Community College and the Oregon Institute of Technology.
The partnership gives students more options and clearer pathways into jobs or college. Some students can graduate and go straight to work. Others receive more training in college.
But they don’t have to choose.
“It was always one of those things where you were told you're either going to college, or you're going to work,” said Laura Meyer, director of nursing and allied health at RCC. “Now, college has kind of come to high school and said, ‘Hey, let's do both.’”
The coursework can also create new choices for students, said Ashleigh Carter, a professional development instructor at Sky Lakes.
“A lot of the people in our community don't really have the opportunity to pay for school outright, or the realistic expectations of their life, maybe, have been set lower because their economic background isn't very strong,” she said. “These kinds of programs help us show them that there is possibility.”
Sometimes that means exposing them to careers they’ve never heard of.
“They think physician. They think nurse, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, because that's what they see,” said Michelle Preston, associate dean for the College of Health, Arts and Sciences at Oregon Tech. “But there are so many other health care professions out there that they may not need a degree, and they can go right into the workforce.”
‘What am I ever going to do with geometry?’
For many students, these industries might make more sense than a four-year university. They offer good-paying jobs that students can enter relatively quickly.
“Do I need $100,000 worth of debt first?” said Steven Hobbs, dean of allied health and sciences at KCC. Or, he said, a student could spend about $8,000 on training, get licensed, start working and return for more education later once they’re earning a salary.
For many students, the appeal is simple: the lessons connect directly to real jobs.
“They see the purpose there,” said Jessica Gross, clinical pipeline program manager at Sky Lakes. “Versus ‘I have to take geometry. What am I ever going to do with geometry?’”
The jobs can also offer a sense of security.
Rodriguez said the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of artificial intelligence have made her and her classmates rethink their futures.
“This hands-on, actively doing something kind of work is very valuable because you're giving yourself an insurance plan,” she said.
The regional workforce is in dire need of workers, especially in health care, construction and manufacturing.
At the same time, the kind of skills the labor market rewards may be changing.
Bret Anderson, an economics professor at SOU, said high-paying jobs have traditionally favored skills like coding and analytical thinking.
“In the last few years, it's been revealed that the labor market may not be rewarding those skills quite like they were in the past,” he said. “The question is, what is the labor market going to favor in terms of who's going to benefit in this moment?”
Now, Anderson said, employers are placing greater value on soft skills, like relationship building and good judgement — skills that Rodriguez and other students practice as they tend to those hospital patients.
Meanwhile, students are gaining more opportunities to explore careers in health care and beyond.
RCC recently announced plans to expand its transportation technology facilities to help meet a shortage of automotive and diesel mechanics in the region.
Last fall, Oregon Tech created a construction management degree. The program initially enrolled about 10 students, but they aim to increase enrollment ten-fold with the help of grant-funded scholarships.
The new CTE center in Klamath Falls is currently focused only on health care, but the plan is to grow into other industries.
