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Career and Technical Education (CTE) prepares individuals for high-skill, in-demand employment that furthers Illinois’ global competitiveness. Last year, roughly two-thirds of all Illinois community college graduates earned a CTE degree or certificate. CTE programs offer flexible scheduling, work-based learning, and stackable credentials that provide a pathway from education to employment not only for recent high school graduates, but also for returning adults, veterans, and workers wanting to update their skills. To ensure that students acquire the skills and knowledge they need to be successful, programs contextualize instruction to the application of skills in the workplace and offer access to state-of-the-art technology. Student success in CTE programming is amplified by academic support services, work-based learning opportunities, and business engagement. CTE’s reach in Illinois’ workforce continues to be expansive; currently, there are over 4,200 different CTE program offerings across the community college system.
Lincoln Trail College joins with community colleges throughout the state to celebrate Career and Technical Education Month. “Career and Technical Education is a really important part of our mission here at Lincoln Trail College and frankly it's an important part of the community college mission all across the country,” says LTC President Dr. Ryan Gower. “We are very blessed in our region to have excellent base and manufacturing jobs and these are employers like Lincoln Land Agri-Energy, Marathon, Dana, Hershey, the hospital and a significant number of jobs that these employers are looking for are skilled or trade labor positions. Not long ago I was reading a report that said south of Interstate 70 about 80 percent of the jobs only require a two-year skilled and technical trade degree.”
Erin Volk is an advisor at LTC. She says the College’s career and technical programs are designed so that graduates can get a degree or certificate and begin a career immediately. Volk says students entering a CTE program at LTC can expect one-on-one attention and hands-on education.
“Most CTE classes include some kind of lab or hands-on component. Take Construction, for example; they’re building things. They’re putting together a finished project that can be used on campus or to help give them a demonstration so they can have a wall with wiring behind it. Our Broadband Telecom program is another great one. They’re out there learning how to climb safely and do pole climbing. Students in our Certified Medical Assistant program are learning how to draw blood, check blood pressures, and assist the patient. It’s important that they have that aspect where they’re physically interacting with it. A lot of your standard college classes have some interaction, but they’re a lot more lecture-based. We like to tie the two together so that they’re getting theory and background, but they’re also getting experience.”
One of the ways LTC CTE students are gaining experience is through internships and apprenticeships. Students have the opportunity to get on-the-job training. Gower says the internships are extremely valuable not only because the students get that experience working, but they’re also getting soft skills employers value like conflict resolution, interpersonal communication, and a strong work ethic.
Gower says right now, there’s a high demand for people in the trades. “It’s one of the fastest-growing opportunities for employment in the United States. When you look at the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the majority of fields that are growing faster or much faster than average are in the trades.”
He says many of these jobs pay well and do not require a bachelor’s degree. “I think in years past, some people tended to marginalize career and technical education and say that it was only for people who didn’t have an academic aptitude to go on to earn a bachelor’s degree and that is fundamentally untrue. We see students in our career and technical education programs that would be right at home in engineering programs at the University of Illinois. The reason they’re in those trades is that the salary and the job outlook is really quite strong.”
Gower says one of the advantages of earning a degree or certificate from Lincoln Trail is that you can complete that in a year or two and immediately begin a career that can pay well right away. He says students also gain valuable experience at LTC.
Volk says LTC works hard to make sure what’s taught at the College aligns with the needs of business and industry. LTC’s CTE programs use advisory councils made up of business and industry leaders. They look through the curriculum and make recommendations on how to keep the College on the leading edge of what’s trending in the industry.
She says another advantage LTC has is extremely knowledgeable faculty teaching CTE programs. “Our faculty has a wealth of experience. They’ve had full careers in the areas where they teach. They know and understand the industry and they can pass along a tremendous amount of first-hand knowledge to our students.”
Gower says there are many advantages for students to pursue a CTE path. “We want them to see the salaries they can earn and we want them to know how strong the job outlook is. We want to help them understand that pursuing a CTE degree or certificate is not a plan B, but it’s actually a very viable first choice.”
