Local guidance counselors see increasing demand for vocational-technical education

For Release:
October 13, 2015

Contact:
Steven C. Sharek
cell: (508) 965-7757
ssharek@minuteman.org

Local Guidance Counselors See Increasing Demand for Vocational-Technical Education

LEXINGTON – Perceptions about the value of vocational-technical education are improving and there will be increasing demand for vocational-technical education in the region over the next five years. Those are two of the key findings of a telephone survey of local guidance personnel conducted by The Education Alliance, a higher education consulting firm. The survey was designed to gauge the feelings of guidance counselors in the 17 middle schools that are members of the Minuteman High School district.

Of the guidance counselors responding to the survey, 81% agreed or strongly agreed that perceptions about vocational-technical education seem to be improving.

More than 75% of the guidance counselors felt that parents in their community would be more willing to send their children to a vocational school in the next five years. Further, 71.4% felt students in their community would be more likely to apply to a voc-tech school in the next five years

More than 8 out of ten counselors agreed that parents and students would be more supportive of vocational-technical education if it is directly linked to higher education.

None of the counselors interviewed agreed with the statement that applications to vocational-technical schools would decrease over the next five years.

All of the counselors surveyed agreed that high-quality vocational technical programs provide a good foundation for a four-year college degree. Only 14.3% agreed with the statement that vocational-technical education is generally inferior to what is offered in traditional academic high schools.

Some 85.7% of the counselors surveyed felt that students with a vocational-technical education have a competitive advantage when they look for jobs.

Nearly six out of ten guidance counselors (57.1%) agreed that they knew of students who have been encouraged not to apply to a vocational-technical high school.

The Education Alliance got responses from 21 guidance counselors, representing 50% of the middle school counselors employed in the Minuteman High School district. The Education Alliance conducted the survey over a two-day period in late September.

Results of the survey were released at a Minuteman School Committee meeting on October 13.

The Education Alliance is a full-service higher education consulting firm based in Natick.