Rob:  Joining me now is the state director of Oklahoma CareerTech, Dr. Phil Berkenbile.  In today’s world, how important is it that we start training our students or at least educating our students at an earlier and earlier age?
Phil Berkenbile:  I think it’s very valuable that they understand so they can make informed career decisions.  You know it used to be you made those decisions in high school or even in college but now we’re seeing more and more preparation needed in the middle school and even in grade school to prepare students for the future whether they’re going on to college or they’re going into the world of work and they need to know what’s out there, what’s available, what’s going to be required of them as far as educational requirements, certification requirements.  But more importantly, what is the demand?  The demand is high in certain areas; in other areas they’ve got a glut of employees and so we need to make sure those students are aware of what’s available for them so they can make good informed decisions for the future.
Rob:  Now in the story we just saw, they mentioned career pathways.  How do those help?
Phil:  Well, a career pathways are basically and individualized education program for the student so they can look down the road and say, okay, here are the things that I need to do to accomplish this goal whether it’s going on high post-secondary education at a CareerTech or higher education facility or it’s a certification credential or a license.  It says here are the courses I need to take.  Here are the tests I need to take.  And it gives those students and idea that these are the things I need to complete.  In the past, we’ve had students who’ve changed career majors and they’ve had to do some of those same things again.  By identifying a pathway it lets a student make changes and they still get credit for what they’ve done and so there’s not that duplication.  Like in health care, where if you went from a respiratory therapist to a surgical tech, you might have to learn how to wash your hands two or three times and it was the same thing.  Now with the pathway they have that on the pathway, they do it, they mark it off, and they go and they don’t have to re-take it.
Rob:  Now it’s important to note when we talk about these students, we’re not just talking about the young, this is something that truly reaches through a lifetime.
Phil:  Oh yes, we have got so many people in the state of Oklahoma that we call incumbent workers that need upgrade skills training.  That can move up from flipping hamburgers at the local stand to business and industry and double their wages.  And at the same time, we’ve got people working in business and industry, such as the aerospace industry and the health care industry, that sometimes get burned out; they sometimes want to change jobs and we need to be offering courses where they can come back and transition into another job without a lot of hurdles, because we could reclaim a lot or workers.  We have some people retiring at 50 and 52 and 53 with some of our health care workers and they have tremendous skills.  We need to be educating that group and creating an intellectual pathway, a network, where they can move into other jobs and be a very valuable asset to the State of Oklahoma and our economy.
Rob:  Well certainly an interesting and a very important time in our state’s history.  I appreciate you being here Dr. Berkenbile.  Now if you want to see more about technology in education, just go to our website at okhorizon.com and click on this week’s value added.