While his classmates were sitting in Spanish, calculus or English classes, Chris Fox spent his high school days taking apart small engines, assisting in improving the school’s computer security system and experimenting with the basics of engineering. Fox, 22 year old Wawasee graduate, took advantage of the opportunities given to him and still credits these classes with making him successful today.

“I had always intended to go to college after graduation, but never knew what I wanted to go into,” said Fox. “The high school classes taught me that I enjoyed working on teams and managing projects.”

These classes were a part of a program offered at Wawasee high School in northern Indiana called Career and Technical Education (CTE). The program, taught in high schools around the nation, concentrates on preparing students for high-skill jobs after graduation. 

This push for vocational training in high schools isn’t new, but the push is now stronger than ever. Over the next decade nearly 2 million manufacturing jobs in the United States will go unfulfilled do to a skill gap, according to the Manufacturing Institute. This means that while there may be unemployed workers looking for jobs, there will not be enough workers that hold proper skills for advanced manufacturing jobs.

With this large expected gap in skilled workers, schools and the government are looking for ways to encourage students to participate in more CTE classes. It isn’t easy for schools to offer enough vocational training for their students due to the lack of trained teachers and funding issues.

Keeping educators interested in teaching CTE courses is as much of a problem in Indiana as it is across the nation. Because these courses are structured around specific skills, teachers must be trained in the specific skill sets but still receive a teacher’s salary.

“A lot of [teachers] come from the workforce and often times a job in the workforce would pay a higher salary than teaching, like an engineering teacher,” said Kris Cambell, Indiana’s CTE support specialist. “Indiana’s struggles align almost directly with national CTE struggles.”

According to the U.S. Department of Education, enrollment in career and technical education has risen by 57 percent in the past decade, from 9.6 million high school students in 1999 to 15.1 million in 2004.

Indiana is one of the many states across the nation that is making an effort to include CTE education in every student’s high school curriculum.

During the 2014-2015 school year, nearly half of all Indiana students in grades 9-12 were enrolled in at least one CTE class, according to the latest Indiana Career Readiness Report (ICRR). This is in part due to the recent efforts of Glenda Ritz, Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“One of my top goals is for Indiana schools to develop pathways for all students,” said Ritz, in the ICRR. “We can no longer entertain notions that we serve only two types of students, some going to college and others going to a career, when all students should be preparing for career and postsecondary success.”

Local Schools offer CTE classes in a wide range of subjects to meet the needs of all students. Some of the classes concentrate on coursework involving autos, cosmetology, welding, biomedical sciences, engineering and much more.

“People want to go to where their strengths will lead them,” said Wawasee Superintendent Tom Edington. “We want them to go where their strengths lead them and we, as a school, are trying to find ways to get them there.”

With all these students interested in CTE classes, Wawasee is constantly trying to expand on their programs to meet interests. One of the major problems that comes with a high demand for CTE classes is finding the funding for these courses. Since CTE classes are focused on advance skills the classrooms often need expensive and advanced technology.

“Everything I build costs money,” said Nguyen. “Our students are lucky because our school is really gung-ho about these programs. If we need something that’s a big budget item we will look for grants.”

The funding issue isn’t unique to Wawasee or Indiana; it’s a national issue. The government also offers a variety of grants and financial support to help fund the programs.

This summer Fox will be hours away from Wawasee High School as he interns with a large Informational Technology (IT) consulting company in Chicago. And in December he will graduate from Purdue University with a degree in Computer Technology Information, a skill he first developed in high school.

“In CTE courses, the projects were mostly student run,” said Fox. He credits the teaching styles and hands on experiences involved with CTE courses as what makes him successful today.