To the Editor:
Career and technical education is a vital component to the local economy. However, post-secondary institutions offering the community an industry certification in lieu of college credit are disenfranchising the economy. The letter “Colleges Should Still Embrace Knowledge for its Own Sake” (The Chronicle, November 13) prompts a broader discussion about higher education and career alignment. Higher-education institutions should be focused on providing students with the habits of mind to support sustainable employment and growth.
Employers seem more interested in an employee’s ability to integrate into the employment structure, reason, communicate, arrive to work on time, and to be conscious and motivated. To this end, employers are willing to offer new employees on the job training to teach them core job skills and functions while the educational institution teaches them the habits of mind required to sustain employment.
Industry certifications should be offered as a component to a college-credit program to provide students with employability skills and a mechanism for lifelong learning. Outside of this, these programs should be part of the continuing-education offerings.
Post-secondary institutions should realize that industry-certification programs offer graduates short-term benefits and exclude pedagogy necessary to provide students with long-term benefits such as transferable and adaptable skills required for a contemporary and competitive job market. It is inappropriate for post-secondary institutions to teach students only enough to get a job.
It appears that the national paradigm which leverages an industry-recognized credential as being an appropriate pathway for a meaningful career was based on a lack of understanding of the importance of a rigorous and integrated career and technical higher education.
Successful career and technical programs include pedagogy, which integrates credit-based civic and technical education and offers graduates an opportunity to transfer to a four-year institution or join the job market with an option to continue their education in the future. Industry certifications are not considered higher education credentials, and therefore, they should not be treated as such.
Thomas Gauthier
Associate Dean, Trade and Industry
Palm Beach State College
Lake Worth, Fla.