Masters Thesis

Equipping Tomorrow’s Skilled Workforce by Changing Perceptions of Career Technical Education

This study sought to identify the perceptions of counselors, parents, and students to arrive at reasons why high school students chose to, or chose not to enroll in a high school’s Career Technical Education (CTE) courses. An online survey was given to approximately 500 CTE students composed of mixed grade levels (9th-12th) and approximately 100 students of mixed grades whom had never taken a CTE course. The study’s results included the following findings: 1. Only 26 percent of entering 7th graders go on to earn their Bachelor’s Degree, while 74% of students presumably entered the workforce; 2. Skilled trade classes were populated with an average of two times the percentage of special education students versus the normal percentage school-wide; 3. Counselors were mostly unaware of the first finding, and on average they believed that 55% of students went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree; 4. 72% of parents surveyed had taken a CTE course during their schooling, and had a generally positive view of CTE; 5. Friends were most influential to students choosing to enroll or not to enroll in a CTE class, while parents and teachers each shared the 2nd most influence in students’ decisions. Based on literature review and the researcher’s data, recommendations were made to improve quality of schools’ CTE programs, how to promote CTE courses more effectively, and what recruitment activities had the greatest influence of attracting new students to CTE.

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