STILLWATER, Okla. (OBV) – Oklahoma CareerTech is a vital part of education and workforce development across the state, equipping students with the skills they will need to begin a prosperous career after high school or get a jumpstart on their college education.
Based out of Stillwater, CareerTech has technology centers across the state and is a presence in schools throughout Oklahoma. It provides students training in a wide array of vocational careers, as well as health care and many disciplines that students can further pursue in college.
However, not all students are interested in going to college after high school. Such students can acquire skills and certifications at CareerTech that will help them land a well-paying job by filling an in-demand position within Oklahoma’s many growing industries.
Not only does CareerTech produce talented workers for the state, it is also a force for economic growth.
A University of Cincinnati Economics Center report shows that CareerTech’s 29 technology centers, 16 Skills Centers and 32 Adult Education and Family Literacy providers contributed $960,013,839 in direct and indirect economic impact and supported 8,654 jobs with $456,203,361 in wages in fiscal year 2023. CareerTech also generated $29.3 million in income tax and sales tax revenue in 2023. Wages from the more than 8,600 jobs generated $18.5 million in income tax revenue for the state while spending from those wages yielded $10.9 million in state sales tax revenue. The 29 technology centers had $518.7 million in economic output across Oklahoma and directly supported 4,745 individuals who received $292 million in wages, according to CareerTech officials.
CareerTech has seen significant growth in recent years. Systemwide enrollment rose 6.3 percent to 520,733 in fiscal year 2024. Administrators recently announced a goal to increase enrollment another 15 percent to a record high of 599,854 in fiscal year 2029.
Young Oklahomans are reaping the benefits of a CareerTech education. The agency’s programs had a 94 percent positive placement rate in fiscal 2023, meaning nearly all CareerTech graduates found employment, entered the military or continued their education.
CareerTech State Director Brent Haken spoke one on one with Oklahoma Business Voice about CareerTech’s success in preparing students for the workforce, how the agency’s mission will benefit from the Graduation Act of 2024, addressing artificial intelligence (AI) and preparing young Oklahomans for the careers of the future and giving students viable career pathways that do not require a college education.
What is CareerTech and how does it help students, both young and older, across Oklahoma?
Haken: A lot of people don’t realize that CareerTech is much more than just a technology center or just an agriculture program. It covers five different delivery arms. So, we’re pretty fortunate that we are our own state agency, which is not how it is in most states; but because we’re so broad, it makes sense.
So, first I’ll talk about the smaller entities. We have skill centers, 16 different programs within prisons in Oklahoma to make sure that inmates get training. So that when they’re released, they can go straight to work. We are also adult education and family literacy. So, those individuals that have gaps to getting to employment, whether it be they they don’t have a high school diploma or they have literacy barriers, we can help with that.
With 32 programs across the state, we also have a very large reputation that CareerTech is business and industry training. So, you think of that as customized and what is needed for the business. And we build that out. Nearly half of the enrollments that we have come from that sector of CareerTech.
What we’re traditionally known for, though, is what high school and adult students can get in a full-time capacity or in a K-12 setting. So, when we say full-time capacity, what we mean by that is half a day enrollment or full day enrollment in a technology center, so they can get specific industry training to go right to work. And then in the K-12 setting, what that is, is our seven different seats; those are probably the things that we’re known for. That’s ag programs, business program, STEM program [and] family consumer science, which used to be known as home ec.
There’s a myriad of courses that students can be a part of that get them ready for jobs, but also ready for life. Those are embedded in the K-12 schools.
Does CareerTech provide only vocational training or does it offer training for non vocational careers?
Haken: We’re definitely not your granddad’s vo-tech, is what we say. The bulk of what we do is vocational or trades training. It’s your plumbing and your HVAC, your automotive diesel – whatever you might be thinking as your vocational trade. But we’re really career-focused. So, we have, an extension of the high school. In some cases we offer academies, pre-engineering or biomedical academies, so that all schools that may be part of a technology center can send students to a technology center to get advanced academics and move forward into college. Even though we still focus primarily on vocational trades, 52 percent of our students move on to college. And that’s a great opportunity for those students as well. So, the technology center serves in that capacity.
We also serve that way in our high schools, where we provide both life skills and vocational training skills. We’re very focused on an individual being able to move forward with whatever their needs are and whatever their passion is, to move forward into the workforce so they can provide for their family.
What’s unique, though, is that in the prison system, we are almost primarily, almost completely a vo-tech school still where we’re hard trades focused. We do have some offshoots, but where we can be focused on how we can directly link to an employer so that the student doesn’t have an interruption from their incarceration time to work. It’s really important that it is a seamless transition right to work.
Are inmates who receive CareerTech training able to obtain certifications that help them gain a career?
Haken: We focus everything that we do within our training on certifications, making sure that we are industry recognized and we’re industry relevant. It’s important to be the certificate that the industry is desiring now. That changes over time. As business changes and evolves, they’re going to need new training and new certifications. So, it’s really important that we stay relevant with that.
Training certificates are the basis of what we provide.
How comprehensive is the training at CareerTech? Can students use their training to go directly into the workforce?
Haken: So most of our students do enter directly into workforce if they’ve gone through a full time training. So you talk about being comprehensive. There’s no way that you can ever teach everything that an employee needs. That’s just not possible because every employer is going to have different expectations. The goal is to make sure they have technical training in an area that they can perform immediately. So, they’re not going to be perfect, but how can they perform right when they enter the workforce?
To give you an example, you could think about diesel. A diesel program would train in the fundamentals of diesel technology, but it’s not going to be CAT specific or it’s not going to be John Deere specific. It’s going to be fundamentals of that technology so they can move into any of those workforce elements, and no matter who the employer is.
How has CareerTech grown over the past few years? Have you added new curriculum and training programs?
Haken: CareerTech’s growth is really awesome. Over the two years that I’ve been part of the system as a state director, we have grown 16.5 percent. That’s across all aspects. The fastest growing is in our ACD, or adult career development, where we offer short term night classes, sometimes in-the-day classes, but they’re on a shorter term basis where people can get skills and and move up in their current employment or move into new employment. That’s the fastest growth.
But the demand for CareerTech at all levels – K-12, middle school, full-time training – is enormous. We have a 40 percent demand right now to grow, and so we’re working to meet that need. One of the ways that we’re doing that is with apprenticeships. To carry that grant through Oklahoma Department of CareerTech, to make sure registered apprenticeships can happen is a fairly new thing. It started in September. We’ve already moved up eight points in state standings in the number of apprentices that we’re rolling out.
It’s a really exciting time. We also built out an Oklahoma CareerTech apprentice model that businesses can jump onto that’s shorter term and faster to get the employees out. It’s really exciting that we’re able to find unique, new ways that are more efficient to meet some of those demands.
Is most CareerTech training done at the CareerTech centers or in public schools?
Haken: There’s a little bit of everything. Enrollment-wise, we have a over 140,000 student enrollment, individual student nonduplicated within our K-12 system. We have about 33,000 nonduplicated full-time enrollments in a technology center. But we also have enrollments that are different with our business and industry, our ACD, what we call our web side of the house; those are nearly 300,000 enrollments, but they’re on a short-term basis, so they are duplicated.
It’s hard to tell the story of CareerTech because we try to meet every need and we we consider ourselves around about for the individual. So you can get on and you can get some training. You can get off and go to work, you can get back on. We never stopped serving an individual, so, you can come back at any time. But the bulk of student enrollment is still in the K-12 system.
How do you decide the fields for which you offer vocational training? Do Oklahoma business and industry leaders have any input on what CareerTech offers?
Haken: We were built ever since 1968 when we changed to the model that we have now, and it’s the only model across the country to being a direct demand service for business and industry. When we put in an area schools now called technology centers, we focused on the service area that pays for those because we’re based off local funds. They decide what is what is in that technology center and what’s in that training.
The state board has oversight, of course, of programs and accreditation, but locally, they get to decide based on the industry that’s in their area, how they’re training.
So, to break that down, first, you’re governed by a local school board that are usually business individuals that are located in that area. They help dictate what their school looks like and who the superintendent is and how the school runs. But then also, every program must have an advisory council that is built by industry people. The curriculum taught there or the certifications taught are driven by industry. And that’s how we make our decisions. They’re not driven by us saying that we in the education business know all that business would need. It’s driven by the people that are in business.
How closely are Oklahoma’s top companies involved with CareerTech? Is there a presence in the classroom? Are they involved with the apprenticeships? How deep is that connection as far as growing students toward their careers?
Haken: Well, the connection to business and industry is incredible. One of the best ways that I would mention is probably not what people think of, but we operate a CTSO for every different division that we have. A CTSO – a CareerTech Student Organization – means that a student gets to be a part of a competitive and leadership driven organization. So, when we come to the end of their year, they’re going to show the skills off. The industry is there. They do the judging. They have the input for what the skill level looks like. Many times, that’s how people get hired and how they get to interview their first time is by competing in these different activities.
The industry drives that, and they make sure that what is being done is relevant. But they’re also intertwined from inception of making sure that, [for example], if we have a demand for lineman programs in our district, that they get to be there and [find out] what we are actually needing. “Oh, they’re going to have to have a CDL. They’re going to have to have this safety training.” They help drive what we’re going to do. Because if we can’t employ the individual after they come from our training, we didn’t do our job. And that’s how we grade ourselves.
We’re focused as a different and unique education entity, where placement is the most important thing that we look at – “How can they get placed? Are they ready to go into the job and do they go into the job?” So, our follow-up reporting is much more important to us than just the enrollments itself. We look at both; enrollments are important, but the individual has to be able to get placed into the industry.
How do Oklahoma’s business and workforce needs shape CareerTech?
Haken: Everything that we do is off of the business and workforce needs. Recently, a good example of that is CDL. Truck driver training ranks continually as one of the top needs in the state. So, what we did is shift to where we put allocations toward our statewide truck driver training model and make sure that we can reach more people.
Over the last two years, we focused really hard on that, and we wanted to increase our CDL output from 450 Class A’s to 900 Class A’s, and we’re on track to do that in another year. That’s how we change and navigate what is needed. Along with that, I can talk about any programs that may exist and how it’s driven.
We use the data compiled by this state from other agencies to drive what we’re doing. Aerospace is probably the best example. We know that a thriving industry in our state is aerospace, defense – all the areas that support that. So, we ramped up aerospace training, specifically A&P training – airframe and power plant – so we can get maintenance technicians out there on the ground and get them in great jobs. We are now the leading state in producing A&P mechanics. It’s really exciting what CareerTech’s been able to do to meet that need.
The one thing that we have concern with is that there’s so much need in every area. How do we meet all of it? So it’s a balancing act, to be real honest, of how do we make sure that we prioritize what those districts need. Because every business within a district is important. We have to support all of them. That’s where the apprenticeships really come into play. That’s new to Oklahoma, but it’s not new, and we can serve individual small businesses with apprentices, whereas a full-time training may not make sense because the magnitude or the number that Tinker needs of A&P mechanics, or sheet metal technicians, is going to be far different than the number of plumbers that we need in a small rural town in Oklahoma.
What are some of the most urgent workforce needs in Oklahoma currently? And does CareerTech have any special initiatives or programs planned to address those things?
Haken: Health care is always one of our top priorities in Oklahoma. I mentioned CDL truck driver training already and how vital it is to keep Oklahoma’s economy thriving. So we know that’s there, and we’re already working to meet that need. Health care is a common problem, but it’s something that we’re working really diligently to solve. We’re going to couple what we do. As full-time training, we are the leader in exam pass rates for LPNs. And we’re going to continue doing those types of things, training CNAs, CMAs. But now we’re going to work on apprentices and making sure that they can get into these workplace settings and be trained. Those two are our leading.
Aerospace is still right up there with needing and meeting a demand. As Tinker grows, and as aerospace companies that are private grow in this area, we have to meet that demand.
The way that we are changing is, “How can we combine what we do in our full time programs with other tools that exist?” So, short-term training models have been very, very exciting to introduce, where we may not be able to put a full-time training in, but we may be able to offer a 200-hour course, 250-hour course to meet some of that initial demand. And then we can apprentice that person so they get continuing education as we move through.
Because Oklahoma CareerTech is versatile, we are a clock hour system versus a credit hour system. We can be a lot more nimble and a lot more creative in how we supply those employees to the workforce.
What careers do you foresee becoming more in demand in Oklahoma in the future? And how quickly can CareerTech adapt to meeting the needs of that workforce demand?
Haken: That’s a tough question, because we have to work off of the demand that exists. But what I can tell you is that technology evolution is happening faster and faster. So what that means is, yes, there’s going to be AI technologies that eliminate some jobs. But what it’s also going to do is build out the technician need, because every piece of equipment, every piece of technology always needs serviced. So how do we service those things, in the future is going to look far different.
What is great and awesome about that is the way that we are tied together with [the Department of] Commerce. We have an embedded employee at Commerce, and so we talk about the businesses that are coming or growing in Oklahoma. And we start to develop, with state allocation dollars, the training that would be needed for that area. If we’re talking about solar panels coming in and being developed in Vinita, like we have been in the future, we start building out the training for that.
It’s immediate. Usually within a year we can have training off the ground. Many times within a matter of weeks, we can start short-term training by recruiting people in as adjunct teachers to get training started before the full time is beginning. So we move really, really quick. Our web division is built to adapt really fast, so it’s exciting as things build out because the skills gap will never be eliminated.
And it shouldn’t be. That means that business and industry is not being progressive if we have a skills gap that is totally closed. So what’s actually exciting is as as business and industry evolves and brings in new technology, so does education. And so we are able to adapt probably faster than any other entity in education because we are a clock-hour institution, and because we combine short-term training with long-hour training, or long-term training, differently than any other education entity ever has.
Has the emergence of AI become an important consideration within CareerTech?
Haken: Absolutely. Not only are we introducing AI technologies and abilities to young students, but we’re talking to the companies now about how are you going to evolve and how are you going to change with the the incumbent AI initiatives. How do we make sure that your current workforce gets what they need? So upskilling and reskilling and retooling is a huge part of what we do.
And that’s going to probably be as great of a need because AI is coming so fast, as is training the students that are in school currently. So, that’s really an area we’re focusing hard on and making sure that we can take their incumbent workforce that is ready and going and retrain them. It’s going to be really cool. What we can do in partnership with OESC (Oklahoma Employment Security Commission) and the title one dollars that are federal so that we can work together to make sure that we have these initiatives met.
It’s exciting that AI is changing a lot of what the workplace does, but we’re able to meet that need already in Oklahoma, whereas a lot of others can’t because they don’t have a system built that can adapt or change that quick.
Oklahoma has a Workforce Commission now. How is CareerTech helping the workforce in its efforts to grow the state’s workforce?
Haken: Well, I’m excited to say that we are an advisory member of that Workforce Commission. We are built to help in that. The way that legislation went through, in the formation of the Workforce Commission, we’re built to help serve as a team. What’s great about the Workforce Commission is they get to relay to us, “Hey, here’s what’s coming. Here’s how you can move forward. Here’s how you can adapt.” Then we get to work together on initiatives.
It’s really about great communication, and something maybe we’ve lacked in Oklahoma is the ability to get on the same page without worry of turf or whose job is that; having some true navigational lines that can say, “Okay, here’s what we need, and how can you serve that?”
Communication is key in all things, and it’s going to work out well when we can collaborate together.
Is CareerTech a growing presence in public schools? And are Oklahoma school districts becoming increasingly interested in incorporating CareerTech into their curriculum?
Haken: CareerTech has always been a strong presence in Oklahoma schools. But recently, in the last two years, we’ve added 242 programs in K-12 schools to start building career orientation and the skills that need to go to the workforce. But something that hasn’t happened since the early 70s in Oklahoma is we are now getting school districts more interested in becoming a part of a technology center service area.
What that means is they’re bringing to their boards and then on to their patrons a potential vote to cast millage so that they could be a part of a technology center. Because we are locally funded, it takes the taxpayers themselves deciding we want to be a part of this. And so that’s happening at a rapid rate in Oklahoma.
Over the last two years, we’ve had four really successful votes where schools have wanted to be a part. We had one that was actually four schools in one county – decided in Beaver County. We all want to be a part of a technology center. So, that’s really, really cool times for these schools. These students are going to be able to take advantage.
We’re fortunate where we get to be an educator on that from the state agency. We get to help communities understand what’s available, what’s the impact to you, and then it’s your decision. It’s such a great system that is built on local control, local initiative and local taxpayer dollars to make this happen.
Our state has done a great job of incentivizing that CareerTech is vital. And so, now we’re actually talking to 12 other public school districts that are interested in becoming a part of a technology center service area.
Are there any CareerTech courses or curriculum that school districts are more interested in incorporating into their own curriculum?
Haken: It’s hard to say. Every school system is unique in the area that they serve the community they serve. Our fastest growing area right now is STEM and STEM exposure to middle school and junior high students. That’s great, because when you tour our prison system, when you talk to those inmates about “Where did you lose hope,” and “How did you find yourself here,” most of them [said], “Middle school or junior high is when I started losing track of who I was and where I wanted to be.” That’s an exciting part.
Our ag programs, our family consumer science programs – all of them that we’ve talked about before – they’re all growing. That’s exciting that every avenue is growing pretty rapidly.
TNI – that’s trade and industry – has been really hard for high schools to add because it’s expensive to do industry-related training, whether that’s carpentry, masonry, HVAC, whatever it is. That’s why we built technology centers, because they’re expensive to operate. The common thought is that CTE is cheaper than other forms of education, whether they be a college degree or whatever it may be. That’s not the case. It’s actually more expensive. It’s more expensive to train somebody on industry materials than it is to pack classrooms. So, it’s really hard to meet those demands. But it’s exciting that school districts are wanting to add that. They’re pushing us to help us grow.
It’s been a really good time in Oklahoma for Oklahoma CareerTech.
How does the Graduation Act of 2024, which allows career-readiness classes to be included as graduation credit, impact how CareerTech is offered in schools?
Haken: The Graduation Act that we just passed in this recent legislature is monumental change for Oklahoma and Oklahoma students. I served as a high school principal for three years, an elementary principal for a year, and a superintendent in K-12 for four years, and I saw firsthand the struggle that we had getting students into the programs they need because they were considered to be electives.
A student should be able to take a career preparatory class, and it should be considered core. And so that’s what this act is going to do. It’s going to make sure that we understand if you’re taking an industry-relevant curriculum, that it really puts to work the math, the science, the English that you have been learning. It should be valued.
That’s what’s going to change. Across the state, as we implement these new curriculum standards, if you’re in a welding program, there is math in that. So, you’re going to get a math credit. There’s science in that. You can get a science credit. You can’t do shielded metal arc welding without talking about the science behind it. You can’t build and you can’t construct things without talking about the math that’s a part of it. It’s not as important that every student has Algebra 2 as it is important that every student knows how to do the job that they have signed up to do. Because we want people to be successful. We want them to be good citizens. We want them to be good tax payers, not tax users.
Let’s make sure that we have the opportunity to put them in the places where we need to. This act is going to make that happen. It’s also going to narrow the gap that we have on students that don’t graduate. When we have a graduation rate that is so poor in Oklahoma, we have to do something different. We have to show that your interests do matter. Your education does matter. So, we needed to change. And it was so great because business and industry, school professionals and everybody got on board with there needing to be a change, and it passed overwhelmingly.
With the Graduation Act of 2024 now being law, do you expect enrollment in CareerTech classes to to rise?
Haken: Absolutely. Yeah. We’re going to grow pretty rapidly. There is a phase-in period of this law where they have a five-year timespan to get students on board with that track, which is great because it’s going to be an adaptation for administrators, counselors, all those people that are going to have to learn how the law can work now. So, it’s going to be a slower uptake than what some people may realize, but it’s going to increase enrollments. It’s going to increase enrollment because it remove barriers.
Over the past few years, how significantly has student enrollment in CareerTech increased? And which fields within CareerTech are students gravitating toward most?
Haken: To tell you the truth, we didn’t do a very good job in Oklahoma CareerTech of increasing enrollments. Over the past decade or 15 years, it was actually really, really slow. That all changed in the last two years where we have found some new efficiencies, within our system. We could count course enrollments, not just full time programs, and where we could work with schools more closely and figure out how we can target students to get the right students in our programs.
The 16.5 percent growth that we’ve seen in the last two years has been very significant. We were pretty stagnant before that. It’s a great change, a great shift in mindset of “we have to serve more people.” A compliment should go to our superintendents and our technology centers and our K-12 schools that have worked together to make sure that that could happen.
I am happy that we at the agency can be a conduit for that. But the schools have really made the work happen, so it’s an exciting time for them.
Do you think students see CareerTech as a viable alternative to college?
Haken: We are post-secondary education. We are higher education. We always have been. We’re just different. We are the only state system that does not make you get a degree to go through technical training that you can get your certificate without. So it’s very unique. But we went through generational change. As I went through school, my parents were very focused on me going to college, and that was going to be the way that we could be successful, they thought. But those narratives are not necessarily true.
What makes a student successful as an adult is really up to them. What you do have to have is some post-secondary training, whether that’s through college or whether that’s through us. I am a very firm believer that more enrollments through CareerTech actually boosts more college degrees in the long run, because people will see success in education and they will want to move forward.
I’m very excited about what we can do in the future. But you asked about what’s making the difference right now. The [COVID-19] pandemic changed a lot of things, and what it did is it opened eyes to see jobs in trades, jobs in skilled labor pay really, really well, and [people said], “I can work into that, and I don’t have to have debt.”
Coming to a CareerTech as a high school student doesn’t cost you anything. Coming to CareerTech as an adult student is very minimal. Most full time programs are less than $3,000 to complete, so it’s really a great way to get a return on investment. We just had a study from the University of Cincinnati; UC Economics put out a study that our return on investment for students is 10 to 1. So, it’s really exciting that they can get into a program and go out and make a lot of dollars.
In the past, was there a stigma associated with vocational careers? Was there a belief that you could not have a meaningful career and a successful life unless you went to college to become a doctor, a lawyer or engineer? And has that way of thinking begun to change?
Haken: It definitely has. And I think that we have to do more to spread that word, that it can change and it can be different. There’s a stigma across the country, not just in Oklahoma, that you need a degree to be successful. And that’s not true. What you need is ambition, motivation and you need some skills.
