As 'career tech for all' spreads, Alabama offers a 'workforce diploma'

Alabama is serious about alternatives to "college for all," Starting this fall, high school students can replace two upper-level math and science classes with three career courses to earn an "Option B" workforce diploma, reports Hechinger's Ariel Gilreath.

Graduates with the workforce diploma wouldn't be eligible for selective state universities, but could start at community college, if they decide they want a bachelor's degree.

Mobile's Chamber of Commerce backed Option B. Only 20 percent of high-wage jobs in the area require a four-year degree, said Kellie Snodgrass, vice president of workforce development. Manufacturing workers are in high demand.

However, only 2 percent of CTE credentials earned in in the state were in manufacturing, notes Gilreath. Nationwide, only 18 percent of CTE credentials earned by K-12 students were in high-demand fields, according to a 2020 report from the Burning Glass Institute.

At least 11 states now let students use career tech courses for core academic credits, according to the Education Commission of the States.

Indiana has "created three graduation pathways that are meant to lead to college admissions, the workforce, or enlistment in the military," reports Gilreath. The changes will go into effect for the Class of 2029.

"Career tech for all" -- students planning on college and those who want to go directly to the workforce -- is catching on, writes Javeria Salman, also for the Hechinger Report.

In Louisville, Kentucky, students explore careers in middle school and pick a career pathway by 10th grade. Across 15 high schools, there are 56 career academies offering 155 different industry pathways, writes Salman. Students earn either a vocational certification or community college credits.

Jeffersontown High offers academies in business and leadership, build and design, or the health sciences, she writes. "Within those academies, students specialize in an industry pathway like engineering, teaching and learning, welding, allied health or marketing."

Financial services students can work at the on-campus Class Act Credit Union, which serves Jefferson County educators.

Some schools integrate academic and career instruction. At Fern Creek High School, fire science students studied the impact of forest fires on an ecosystem in biology and used math skills to decide how to invest $2,000 in fire safety.

"College isn’t for everybody,” says Sara Abell, a former Advanced Placement teacher who now leads the career academies. “Kids don’t need to go to college and waste a bunch of money just to figure out that this isn’t for them and that they could have done something in a skilled trade."