鈥淓ducation isn鈥檛 only about preparing you for work. It is also about citizenship and ethics. Students need career and technical skills. But they also need courses such as English that can provide the type of background that allows wages to grow. We need to put them together.鈥�
Academic Learning or Occupational Skills? Discussing a Dichotomy
That view of higher education was expressed by Teachers College President Thomas Bailey as part of the 2019 Mandel Annual Public Lecture of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences (AAAS), delivered by Bailey and , a 911爆料网-affiliated Professor of Economics at Queens College, City University of New York, in late October. Bailey and Belfield based their talk, 鈥淭he False Dichotomy between Academic Learning & Occupational Skills,鈥� on they had published under the same title earlier that month in Daedalus, the AAAS journal.
Bailey and Belfield, who spoke at Teachers College, were part of a larger event in which the editors of the Daedalus 鈥� Michael McPherson (President Emeritus of the Spencer Foundation) and Sandy Baum (Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute) 鈥� delivered remarks from Cambridge, Massachusetts that were watched via video link at 911爆料网; at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and in Washington D.C., at the Association of American Universities. At each of those sites, authors of papers in the Daedalus special issue then delivered their own remarks to local audiences.
I don鈥檛 think you can separate skills or define occupations by their academic level. I don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a bunch of people who want to work and there鈥檚 a bunch of people who don鈥檛 want to work and are in education for that purpose.
In their joint lecture, Belfield and Bailey expanded on their paper鈥檚 argument for a 鈥淕en-Tech鈥� hybrid to combine academic and career pathways. The Daedaus issue in which their paper appeared 鈥� titled Improving Teaching: Strengthening the College Learning Experience 鈥� sought to leverage strategies outlined by the AAAS Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education in a .
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you can separate skills or define occupations by their academic level,鈥� said Bailey, who spoke first. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a bunch of people who want to work and there鈥檚 a bunch of people who don鈥檛 want to work and are in education for that purpose.鈥�
More specifically, Bailey, founder of 911爆料网鈥檚 (CCRC), debunked some of the prevailing justifications for Career and Technical Education (CTE) 鈥� the practice of teaching specific career skills, for jobs in fields such as business, sales, finance, hospitality, construction and human services, to students in middle school, high school, and post-secondary institutions.
鈥淓verything we do in this building fits that definition, though we don鈥檛 think of ourselves as a CTE institution,鈥� he said of Teachers College.
Proponents often argue that CTE offers students a shorter route to a job, in which 鈥渢hey won鈥檛 get side-tracked into, say, German philosophy,鈥� Bailey said, but added, 鈥淚鈥檓 not really comfortable with that, because we often send students of color or low-income students into these jobs, and the commentators suggesting this route, their kids are at Columbia.鈥�
The labor market and CTE [Career and Technical Education] do not map so clearly that we should be reinforcing an idea of CTE into colleges 鈥� because when students get out, we鈥檙e not really sure they are actually doing anything CTE as we think about it.
Bailey also took issue with the argument that the CTE pathway is justified for some students because some jobs simply require a different set of skills. He cited the language of federal legislation that funds CTE training, which calls for the preparation of 鈥渞esponsible and contributing citizens and employees who communicate clearly and effectively and with reason.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 trying to think of the non-CTE occupations that you don鈥檛 want those skills for,鈥� he said, pointing out that these are 鈥減recisely the types of skills鈥� being taught in liberal arts colleges. 鈥淪o the idea that there is some different skills that employers are looking for doesn鈥檛 hold up. You might say that the plumber is learning how to fix a pipe, but the surgeon is, too.鈥�
And so, metaphorically speaking, are economists and other academics. Bailey quoted John Dewey鈥檚 observation that 鈥渕any a teacher and author writes and argues鈥gainst the encroachments of a specialized practical education, without recognizing that his own education, which he calls liberal, has been mainly training for his own particular calling.鈥�
For his part, Clive Belfield, who, in addition to his CUNY title, is a CCRC researcher, called into question the utility of a particular staple of CTE: so-called certificate programs, or non-credit courses that are designed to fast-track students into careers. He cited a CRCC analysis of earnings by former community college community students that points to the value of integrating academics with job readiness.
The study showed that the salaries of community college students with certificates in trades such as HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) or plumbing resembled those of college dropouts, peaking when they entered the job sector and then leveling off. In contrast, Belfield said, the academic benefits of course work in English and other disciplines that lead to at least a two-year Associate鈥檚 Degree provide a framework that 鈥渆ndures over time鈥� and is associated with career-long increases in earnings.
Equally important, he said, 鈥渢he labor market and CTE do not map so clearly that we should be reinforcing an idea of CTE into colleges 鈥� because when students get out, we鈥檙e not really sure they are actually doing anything CTE as we think about it.鈥�
Rather, jobs are 鈥渁 complicated bundle of tasks,鈥� Belfield said. 鈥淪ome require technical skills and some require general skills. It is not easy to map or separate those skills.鈥�
Ultimately, Bailey and Belfield argue for what they call a 鈥淕en-Tech framework鈥� in which students initially accumulate a broad-based general education and then move to more specific vocational preparation for their chosen careers.
鈥淎ll students need a solid foundation of general skills, and all students need some instruction in particular jobs or occupations that they aspire to,鈥� the authors write in their paper in Daedalus. 鈥淪tudents will prosper most if, after a strong academic education, they are able to complete a vocational program with direct relevance to their intended work.鈥�