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Tech Prep Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What’s in it for me?
A: That depends on the perspective from which you are viewing the program.
With Tech Prep, you can start preparing for the career of your choice while you’re still in high school. You can learn the academic and technical skills you need to eventually get a good job. You also learn very important life skills such as teamwork, decision making, and how to adapt to change.
With Tech Prep, you know where you are headed and what you have to do to get there. You have a plan that can guarantee you success if you stick to it. While other kids are wondering what they will do after high school, you will know.
The academic courses in the Tech Prep program are taught so that you use your hands as well as your head. You’ll learn difficult material, but you’ll find it’s much easier to understand because of the practical applications.
Tech Prep students find that school becomes a lot more interesting and fun. Your attendance improves your grades and test scores go up, and you’re much less likely to drop out of school prior to graduation.
Tech-Prep is a college-bound program. When you graduate from high school, you’ll have taken many courses for which you can receive free college credit.
If you decide to continue on to a four-year college you will be well prepared. The Tech Prep curriculum is just as rigorous as the "college prep" track and the decisions you make while developing your four-year plan don’t lock you into anything.
The employers who are the school’s Tech Prep partners offer opportunities for you to have worksite-based experiences while you’re still in school.
If you decide college isn’t for you. You will have the skills necessary for an entry-level job in your chosen Tech Prep pathway. By the time you graduate from high school you will have some community college courses to enhance your resume and let your employer know you are more qualified than the average high school graduate is.
Eighty to ninety percent of the jobs in the 21st century will require technical training after high school, but not necessarily a four-year college degree.
Tech Prep is the fastest way to become independent. Two years after high school graduation, you’ll be ready to work in a job with a good salary and the possibility of advancement.
Q: Is my high school participating in Tech Prep?
A: There are currently ten Cochise County high schools that offer Career and Technical Education programs and are participating in Tech Prep. (See Who’s Who Page)
Q: Who do I contact to find out more about Tech Prep?
A: You can contact your local Tech Prep Coordinator or the Cochise County Tech Prep Coordinator (see the Who’s Who page).
Q: Is Tech Prep designed for the person who does not intend to go to a four-year university?
A: Tech Prep is designed to support all academic levels. It supports the student who intends to go to work upon graduation from high school; the student who intends to get an associates or technical degree or certificate; the student who intends to continue their education for a baccalaureate degree or higher.
Q: Why are you pushing Tech Prep when everyone knows that the only sure road to success is a four-year college degree?
A: Today, 80 percent of the good jobs available to graduates are more likely to require two years – not four years – of college. A four-year degree no longer guarantees success in life. Even so, Tech Prep still prepares one for continuation on toward a four-year or higher degree.
You’ll be an integral part of the decision making process. Counselors and other school staff members will help you, and your child look at the options based on the child’s interests, aptitudes and abilities.
A long-range career plan will be developed, but it will not be set in concrete. You and your child can request changes at any time to follow a new pathway.
Tech Prep incorporates applied courses in English, math and science that are wonderful for students who learn better with a hands-on approach. Grades improve because students have a better understanding of what they are doing and because they see that it really is going to be useful to them in the future.
The Tech Prep curriculum meets the standards of college prep courses, and sometimes even more demanding. It includes every subject that the four-year college-bound student takes.
Tech Prep students have better attendance in high school, are less likely to drop out, make better grades and higher test scores and are more apt than other students to continue their education after high school.
Tech Prep is a college bound program. Every Tech Prep student is expected to enroll in a two-year community or technical college and to earn a degree or certificate. Students who wish to continue working toward a four-year degree will be well prepared to do so.
Your child can earn college credit for some courses he or she takes in high school, thus saving both time and money at the postsecondary level. Your child can apply the skills he or she learns in high school and community or technical college to help pay expenses for the next level of training. In addition, a number of states offer scholarships specifically for Tech Prep students.
Business and industry are big boosters of Tech Prep and have helped design the program. Graduates will have the skills and knowledge employers are looking for, and good jobs will await them.
Eighty to ninety percent of jobs in the 21st century will require training after high school, but not necessarily a baccalaureate degree.
Tech Prep will prepare your son or daughter for the technology jobs of the future. Along with academic and technical skills, he or she will learn the interpersonal and communications skills necessary to succeed at work.
Q: Is my child’ s high school participating in Tech Prep?
A: There are currently ten Cochise County high schools that offer Career and Technical Education programs and are participating in Tech Prep. (See Who’s Who Page)
Q: Who do I contact to find out more about Tech Prep?
A: You can contact your local Tech Prep Coordinator or the Cochise County Tech Prep Coordinator (see the Who’s Who page).
Q: Is Tech Prep designed for the person who does not intend to go to a four-year university?
A: Tech Prep is designed to support all academic levels. It supports the student who intends to go to work upon graduation from high school; the student who intends to get an associates or technical degree or certificate; the student who intends to continue their education for a baccalaureate degree or higher.
Q: My child isn’t ready to make career decisions in the eight or ninth grade. Why are you trying to box my kids in?
A: It is not boxing a child in to encourage them to take more rigorous academic courses or to teach them to use applied strategies that are effective with a variety of learning styles. We are starting a thought process that will help them be prepared for whatever they decide to do in the future.
At a minimum, we are hoping to help your child obtain enough technical and academic skills in one concentrated area so they will be competitive in the workforce and will be able to work at more than minimum wage while attending college or until they figure out what they want to do as a career.
Q: Why are you trying to lock my child into a career pathway that he or she can’t change?
A: Tech Prep doesn’t lock anyone into anything. It simply lays out a plan for each child that can be readily changed at any point. Tech Prep also offers multiple exit points.
Q: Why are you pushing Tech Prep when everyone knows that the only sure road to success is a four-year college degree?
A: Today, 80 percent of the good jobs available to graduates are more likely to require two years – not four years – of college. A four-year degree no longer guarantees success in life. Even so, Tech Prep still prepares one for continuation on toward a four-year or higher degree.
Q: I have a high school diploma. Why isn’t that good enough for my kid?
A: Because the workplace has changed one can no longer get a good job with only a high school education.
Q: Isn’t Tech Prep just warmed over vocational education with a fancy new name?
A: If you look at the Tech Prep curriculum lined up against the "college prep" curriculum you will see that there is not a lot of difference. In reality, they are both college prep.
Q: Aren’t you just trying to "track" my kid into some program for dummies?
A: Tech Prep actually eliminates the tracking system. It offers all kids the chance to achieve to their fullest potential. Tech Prep eliminates the tracking system and maintains the latitude to prepare any student to reach whatever educational level he or she chooses.
Q: Are these applied courses just "dumbed down" versions of what you teach college prep kids?
A: Again, lay the Tech Prep curriculum and the college prep curriculum side-by-side and you will quickly see they are at least equal, and in some cases the Tech Prep curriculum is more difficult.
Q: Who says there will be jobs for my kid when he or she finishes the Tech Prep program?
A: The United States Department of Labor, for one. Labor Department data shows that there will be jobs for Tech Prep graduates – and the graduates with four-year college degrees haven’t done too well in recent years.
Business and industry will – probably for the first time – be full partners in the educational process. Your advice on curriculum and other relevant topics will be sought – and heeded – on a continuing basis. You will have many opportunities to share your insights and concerns with educators.
Business people will be welcome as observers or participants in the classroom. In turn, teachers can accept invitations to visit your company to see what their students need to know to succeed in the workplace.
Through internships and other work-based programs, you can get to know prospective employees while they are still students. You will be able to observe them over a period of time, assess their potential and mold them to your specific needs.
Most important, Tech Prep graduates will enter the workplace with good technical and academic skills and an understanding of what you expect of them. They should also cost you less money, both because they require less initial training and because they are efficient and productive on the job.
Tech Prep is working hard to produce a product that will serve business and industry needs of the future! We need you to be involved! How?
- Help us educate students and instructors about the skills you need
- Participate in CTE Program Advisory Boards
- Provide work-based learning experience for students and/or educators by offering
- Work site tours,
- Job shadowing experiences,
- To be a guest speaker
- Summer internships
Because all Tech Prep students develop four-year career plans, they know where they are headed. They are more focused and inner-directed, and this is reflected in their behavior and academic performance.
Tech Prep includes applied courses in math, science and English that lead to success for students who have never been turned on by traditional teaching methods. Students like the hands-on approach and the relevancy they see between what they are doing in school and the career goal they have chosen.
Students can receive college credit for the courses you teach. Not many high school teachers can boast of that. You’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping them get a head start on postsecondary education, saving them both time and money.
Cooperation between departments in the high school and between the secondary and postsecondary levels creates a new esprit de corps that’s both challenging and exciting. It will broaden your horizons, challenge your creativity, heighten your sense of professionalism and expand the human and material resources available to you and your students.
If you are a postsecondary teacher, you’ll get students who are better prepared and ready to learn advanced skills and concepts. They’ll be more attentive and interested because they don’t have to sit through a rerun of classes they took in high school.
Liaisons with the business community will open new doors for you. Your students will have the opportunity for job shadowing, summer employment and mentoring. You will have the opportunity for summer internships in industry to update and strengthen your business perceptions.
Tech Prep helps schools financially in other ways too. In most areas, state money for education is partially linked to student attendance. As attendance improves, so does state funding.
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