TECHFUTURES:Providing Public High School Students Career Options through Technology Skills Training
The TECHFUTURES PROGRAM IN OVERVIEW TechFutures program started in 2000, opening it doors to its first class of students in January 2001 at El Cerrito High School. Founded by a former Intel Corporation executive, Ron Whittier, and his wife Ellen, the mission of TechFutures was to bring career options to under resourced, at risk youth through technical skills training. Since its startup with a class of 24 students at El Cerrito, the program, now in its seventh year, has expanded within the West Contra Costa School District to approximately 180 students in three high schools, El Cerrito High, Kennedy High and Richmond High.THE TECHFUTURES MODEL
From the outset, the pillars of the TechFutures program have been:- Deep technical training in the new areas of internet applications. The curriculum was developed with sequences of courses in Web Design, Database Applications, and Networking. A condition for entrance into the TechFutures program was that students commit to two years of training totaling more than 500 hours of in class/lab time.
- A professional, disciplined, business-like approach was implemented with strict rules on attendance, behavior and commitment to the program mission. Those students who did not initially measure up to the high expectations were given additional support, including family intervention, to keep them in the program. To assist in developing this business mind set, the program provided job skills training in areas like working within a team, resume writing consistent with career direction, and job interviewing.
- Application of skills in a real-world work environment was stressed by placing as many of the students as possible in a variety of project work situations. Students are given the opportunity to work in supporting the TechFutures program as Teaching Assistants, Network Support Technicians, and Database Technicians. Other students are employed to build applications for customers (for example, the Scholarship Wizard application built in collaboration with WCCUSD), while still others work as interns at companies like Intel Corporation or for the City of Richmond. To date hundreds of TechFutures students have been placed in well-paying positions that rely on their newly acquired technical skills.
RESULTS TO DATE
The objective of the Techfutures program is to provide youth career options going forward. Those options are many, but clearly they include going on to post-secondary education. We are particularly proud of the result that 100% of the graduates of our first five graduating classes have gone on to some form of continuing education. We have just this year seen our first University graduates and one thing is very clear: the technical and job-related skills obtained from the TechFutures program have allowed many of these students to earn the funds necessary to pay their way through college. While the alternative of taking on high personal debt is there, that has become increasingly less attractive to many high school graduates.
While a high percentage of our graduates go on to career options that directly use their application skills such as Engineering and Computer Science, many others find careers in areas such as Art, Business and Health Care, where their knowledge of applications helps them be more productive in their professional careers.
Another result of particular import is retention rate. Students enrolled in the TF program stick with is for the two-year commitment to the tune of 81%. This high retention rate has been achieved even though we accepted students with marginal GPAs, students with learning disabilities, and students ready to drop out of school as it did not appear to meet their needs. It is our belief TechFutures high retention rate is a result of the high degree of relevancy of the technical material. Students see the connection with the real world, and understand the importance and value of the skills they are mastering.
THE ROLE OF CAREER TECH IN TRANSFORMING PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION
During the formative years of TechFutures in WCCUSD, it was clear that the state of career tech programs within the District was inadequate, virtually non-existent. The vocational programs of the 20th century no longer were valid, and they had not been replaced by programs based on 21st century technologies. This was particularly true in the areas of computers and communications, where the high school computing infrastructure and the technical curricula did not exist. It was in this area that TechFutures invested, introducing its internet applications career tech program in 2000. Since then the curriculum has been enhanced several times as the technology continues to evolve, necessitating continuous upgrades to the courses.
But, other issues surfaced: How does one integrate this “career tech school” into the public high school system? How does the career technical program get integrated into the academic program within the high school? This second issue had started to be addressed at Richmond High through a small learning community grant. The University of California Graduate School of Education had been doing research in this area for many years. An assessment of the best strategy to pursue to answer the above questions led to the conclusion that an aggressive District-level program was the correct direction. Based on this thinking the West Contra Costa School to Career Partnership organization applied to the James Irvine Foundation for support of a major program to bring Career Academies to WCCUSD. In December 2005 the Irvine Foundation made significant grants to the Whittier Educational Foundation and to the Career Academies Support Network (UC Berkeley) to implement 12 career academies within WCCUSD over a two-year period, a major win for the District.
Since January of this year a team of professionals have been working directly with the high schools and the District to implement the grant, with 9 career academies at three high schools (ECHS, JFK, and RHS) operational this Fall 2006. The results to date are very encouraging, with momentum for the career tech approach building at every turn. At TechFutures we are proud to be part of this “career tech movement” with two Information Technology Academies opening this Fall, with a third possible next year. Through the efforts of a lot of individuals within the District and the WCC Community we appear to be on the verge of transforming WCCUSD into a 21st century career tech showcase.