Here's What It Could Look Like to Put the Trades Back in School
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Summary
CTECS is a one of the few places in the country with a one-of-a-kind program that puts the trades back in school for high school students. Brent McCartney, a consultant for CTECS, talks about how the program works and how it benefits both the students and the community.
Transcript
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Brett McKay here, and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.
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So lately, I've been talking to my son, Gus, about considering a career in the trades.
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A lot of the white collar jobs out there, they just don't seem very fulfilling, and
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AI is going to make more and more of them disappear.
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But skilled tradesmen are in demand, and that demand is only going to grow.
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So one option I floated to Gus is to still go to an affordable college for mind expansion
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and social opportunities, but then instead of going on to get a graduate degree, as so
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many young people do, he could go to trade school instead.
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So that's one potential route, should he be interested.
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But I really wish he could be exposed to the trades while he's still in high school.
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All states have forms of what's called career and technical education, or CTE, but in most
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The programs are run by local schools who partner with other institutions that offer
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The state of Connecticut does things differently.
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They have a one-of-a-kind CTE system, which, as one journalist recently put it, could serve
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as a national model for how to put the trades back in school.
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The Connecticut Technical Education and Career System, or CTECS, includes 17 high schools
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Each school offers an education in both academics and the trades on the same campus.
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The students who choose to attend these special high schools spend half of their time on the
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former and half of their time on the latter, so by the time they graduate, they've earned
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both a high school diploma and certification in a trade.
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And the size and organization of CTECS allows it to partner with hundreds of employers in
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the area who furnish students with paid work on actual projects, so they get plenty of hands-on,
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Today on the show, I talk to Brent McCartney, who oversees the architecture and construction
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trades at CTECS about how the program works and how it benefits both the students and
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After the show's over, check out our show notes at aom.is slash ctex.
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So you are a consultant for the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System, but
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Tell us about your background and how you came to work with CTECS.
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I graduated from Halicini Tech in Manchester in 2001, and I was part of the carpentry program
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After graduation, I started working right in the field, so residential and commercial
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And I did that both in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
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My wife got her master's out in Pittsburgh, so we moved out there in 2007.
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I really enjoyed working construction, but then one day, you know, a friend of mine was
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And as soon as I was done laughing about that, I was like, yeah, what the heck?
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So in 2009, I applied for a teaching position out in Pennsylvania.
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It was a building trades program, so it's a little different than what we do here in
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For that, I had to teach carpentry and electrical to numerous grade levels of students.
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But I'll tell you what, it was the best decision of my life.
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I really liked working with the kids, kind of mentoring them through the process and helping
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So in 2010, we moved back to Connecticut, and I was very lucky because a position opened
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up at EC Goodwin in New Britain, and I was hired, and I taught carpentry there for about
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I'd bring kids out to real jobs, and we would work on these projects for customers, and the
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Like, working out there, it couldn't have gotten better.
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In 2018, I was asked to come up to our central office as an intern, and I really was hesitant
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I really didn't think I was going to like it because I really liked working with the
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But I figured I would shut it out, and again, I was wrong.
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I work now with teachers of the architecture, carpentry, landscaping, and masonry shops in
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I really enjoy mentoring these teachers and setting up their professional development
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and their facilities and kind of getting into the policy side of education.
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Well, so the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System, so it's CTEX for short.
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So this is a one-of-a-kind high school system in the United States that combines academics
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So can you give us a big-picture overview of CTEX?
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Like, how long has it been around, and how did the idea kick off?
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So it's been around for a little over 100 years.
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In its infancy, it was kind of developed through industry itself and then became more and more
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And so now, in 2023, our mission remains the same.
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We're here to be the primary pipeline for students going into the field.
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So our students here at CTEX have 91 full days of academics, and then we have 91 days in trade.
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So they kind of get both of those educations in the same time that a student would just
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So they're learning geometry, history, but they're also learning how to do masonry or carpentry
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So those schools don't have academics built into them.
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It's a lot like what you would see in other states where the students for that school get
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And then when they're in 11th to 12th grade, they can go to that school to get some CTE education
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But 17 of our schools are diploma-granting high schools.
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They get all of their academics and all of their trade with us.
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So we're state funded, which really helps us because it increases kind of the partnerships
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we have with state agencies like the Department of Labor and Department of Transportation and
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It helps us to align to state initiatives, right?
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So we work closely with the Governor's Workforce Council and others to make sure that we're relevant
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within our state and also some high-level partnerships.
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And how many students are enrolled in CTEX right now?
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So what's interesting about CTEX, it's been around for over 100 years.
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They're combining academics with the trade training.
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But it's interesting, you look back at public education in America, big picture, across the
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And it used to be a lot of high schools would offer some sort of trade training, right?
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But most high schools, they don't even offer those classes anymore.
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Why did any kind of trade training in American public education, except at CTEX, but why do
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you think, if you're looking at it from a big picture overview, why do you think it got
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Well, I think there's really two things happening here.
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One was just society's perception of what a successful path looks like.
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I mean, there was, like I said, I went to tech school myself.
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And the perception back then was, if you didn't have a college degree, you weren't going to
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So I think that that got kind of programmed into people.
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So they didn't see the trades as an option, which we now know is completely false.
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But I also think that educational policy had a lot to do with this also.
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And the focus went to accountability instead of the skills that students were learning.
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And now you're looking at high stakes testing being the, you know, the benchmark for success.
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So a lot of teachers just started teaching to the test, teaching just the content.
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And we moved away from how kids were working with information.
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So a lot of problem solving and critical thinking was taken away, a lot of communication skills
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And then when No Child Left Behind kind of sifted out, we're looking at the technology boom,
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So we're looking at focusing on computers and other technology.
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So I just think that the trades took a backseat in a lot of ways.
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And what do you think the consequences have been with the shift primarily to academics in
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How has it hurt our country on a macro level, you think?
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Well, I would tell you to try to find a contractor to come work on your house.
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I think it's had a severe impact on the amount of trained workers that we have in a lot of fields
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You know, the average age of a worker right now is nearing retirement age.
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You know, they're retiring faster than we have kids coming in.
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So there's just a lot of knowledge being lost, a lot of experience being lost, because a lot
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of the trades that we work with, you know, include an apprenticeship and on-the-job training.
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And as these people are retiring and not retraining, then we're kind of losing a lot of that
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So we really need to focus on how this is a successful route.
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This is a place where people can make money and be successful with, you know, having a
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I'm sure it's different in every part of the country, but what's the supply of skilled labor
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Is there a field like carpentry or electrical that's hurting the most?
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Well, so in Connecticut, I would say that construction and manufacturing are probably the biggest
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So really construction with all types of construction.
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But last year, there was a $5.4 billion infrastructure bill passed.
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And, you know, there's a lot of work to be done on our bridges and our roadwork, roadways
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So I think that with all of those fields, so the electrical that goes into that and the
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prepping of the roads to putting down the roads, I think there's going to be a lot of
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But I mean, just residential and commercial construction is also booming.
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So we have Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky, Electric Boat, and we're working with them constantly
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So we've talked about macro level, how this shift away from trade training and just focusing
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on academics has hurt us, there's, yeah, if someone's trying to get a contractor, roof
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repaired, electrician, a plumber, it might be, could be weeks before you can even get anything
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Let's talk about on an individual level with the student, what do you think has happened
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How has it hurt individual students by shifting away from trade training and just focusing on
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So that students will go to a two or four year college and either not finish or finish
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So they have this diploma, but there's no job to fill that.
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When I graduated in 2001, I made a deal with my mom.
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She wanted me to get a degree because again, that's what we had to do back in the day to
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So I actually have an associate's degree that it's helped me now because I'm, I'm pursuing
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So I use that transfer credit as much as I could, but, uh, I only did it because I thought
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And so I think having that as like the norm for kids that don't want a career that needs
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a college diploma, I just think there's a lot of wasted money in education out there.
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Have you seen CTS create more opportunities for students who would have normally, you
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know, fallen between the cracks in a traditional high school?
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So, so I don't know that I love the term fall between the cracks because it's not like we're
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filled with students who are unsuccessful in other routes, but I do think that we're helping
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When they come to us, there's a huge focus on career exploration.
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So even inside of one shop, there's many, many avenues.
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Take carpentry, for instance, there's residential carpentry and all the different siding and
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There's commercial construction, there's construction management, horizontal construction, like I was
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So I, we do focus a lot on career exploration so that students can make educated decisions.
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So then if they do go off to college, which happens quite a bit, they're going to get
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a degree in a field that they're going to pursue.
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Well, speaking of that idea that, you know, you don't want to say that the program only
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attracts students who haven't thrived in traditional high school, what's the makeup, right?
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I mean, so I think one of the reasons why trade school was looked down upon or, you know, was
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just looked over was the idea that it's blue collar, right?
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And if you want to be part of the middle class or the upper class, you got to go to college.
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So does that stereotype hold up or are you getting kids who come from white collar or
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middle-class families, but they're still seeing trade schools as a, as a viable option?
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I mean, I guess, are you getting a wide swath of the socioeconomic spectrum?
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So again, our, our system covers the whole state.
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So with the 20 locations, we're all over Connecticut and Connecticut in itself is very diverse.
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But I would say that the makeup of each of our schools matches the sending towns within,
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So I, I definitely don't see any notable difference in socioeconomic status or gender or race,
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or, I mean, we're open to all Connecticut residents and we promote our districts, you know,
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Have you seen more interest in general in CTEX from both parents and high schoolers in Connecticut?
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So over the last couple of years, yeah, our, our applications for open seats has doubled.
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So there definitely is more of a push and we do our best too, to match the needs in that
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So it's very relevant for students that live in that area.
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Like why would it be different in one part of the state compared to another?
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So when we open programming or closed programming or move programming, it's all based on industry
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So we do our best to make educated decisions about what we put in schools.
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We also try to make sure that each school has a good profile because you will have students
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So we have a lot of the construction trades are auto.
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And then we also have some sit-down trades like IT and digital media or architecture.
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So students can kind of now be more of an office setting.
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And then we also match just to make sure that we have a plethora of opportunities for students.
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So you mentioned some of the trade offerings you have.
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How many total trades are you training at CTEX?
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So currently, we have 31 different trade offerings, kind of all over the place, right?
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So we have transportation trades, auto, diesel, collision repair.
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There's nine trades within construction, everything from electrical to HVAC systems, plumbing,
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Then we have some in the health and people services.
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So we have a criminal justice and protective services.
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So really, all across the map, we have trade programming.
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Okay, so say a student wants to get involved in CTEX.
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How does a student decide which area or which trade they're going to focus on when they enroll?
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So this is one of the things I think that we do best because I think there's a lot of
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But until you actually get in and do it, it's hard to make that decision.
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So we have what we call our exploratory process.
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And every student at CTEX will spend two days in every one of the shops that we offer.
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And in that two days, the teacher will kind of go over what it looks like to be there for
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four years, what it looks like upon graduation and all those different career pathways associated.
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And some of those, again, might include college.
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But they kind of get a feel for each of the shops.
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Then at the end of that, they pick three shops to go back to.
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So they'll go back to three shops for four days and really kind of dig down deep as to
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But in both phase one and phase two, they'll complete a project also that mimics what they're
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So they can kind of see if they have an aptitude or an interest in that area.
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So let's talk about what day-to-day life is like for these students.
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Like what does an academic education look like with trade training?
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So you mentioned there's 91 days of academic instruction and then 91 days of trade instruction.
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What does a typical schedule look like for a student?
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So I keep saying 91 and 91, but it's not 91 straight days and 91 straight days.
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So it's best to say about 10-day cycles, somewhere around a two-week mark.
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So what will happen is like at the beginning of the year, 9th and 12th graders will start
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off in academics while 10th and 11th graders are in shop.
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And like I said, roughly around 10 days with holidays and stuff in there, it varies, but
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So when they're in academics, it's your typical setup, just like a regular high school.
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So they're going period to period, math, English, social studies.
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They have gym, Spanish, art, and they rotate through their schedule.
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And then when they're in shop in the 9th and 10th grade, they have two pullouts for literacy
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and numeracy lab, but otherwise they're in the shop all day.
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And then in 11th and 12th grade, they have one pullout for what we call portfolio.
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This is where they learn a lot about employability skills, resume building, and stuff like that.
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So that's pretty much what their schedule looks like.
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So 10 days on with the academic and then 10 days with the trade training.
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So you mentioned the 9th and 10th graders, the first two years.
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I really want to talk about what the 11th and 12th graders do because this is really cool
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But 9th and 10th grade, what does vocational training look like for them those first two years?
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So very, very hands-on depending on the shop, but we're really talking about the foundation
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It's a completely different language with the shop that they're in.
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And then they're learning a lot of safety depending on the shop.
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You know, construction, obviously, with heights and the machinery we're using.
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When you walk into the shop, you can see machines from one side to the other.
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So there's a lot of safety in there and then a lot of math.
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So what we like to call applicable math, because now we're talking about the math that they're
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And we do a good job in our district of tying it back to what they're learning in academics
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But yeah, so a lot of foundational learning, but we like to, so we're a competency-based district.
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So we'll teach them a competency and then we'll mix those into a project.
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So that way the students can really dig down deep and learn.
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So the first two years, you're primarily going to be in the shop in that environment, correct?
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For most of our shops, yeah, they're doing projects within the shop, yes.
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But one of the unique things about CTEX is that when a student becomes a junior,
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they can actually start working on projects for real customers.
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So tell us about the work-based learning program.
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Well, so I'll back it up one and talk about our student workforce.
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So our student workforce has two kind of pathways in it.
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One of them is what we would call student production, and one of them is WBL.
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So student production is where our students are working with their instructors to complete
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And we do this, every program does some sort of production.
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So like hairdressing or automotive or culinary, we'll have customers coming into the school
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and eating, getting their hair done or their car work done.
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And then the construction trades will go off campus.
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They'll do boiler furnace swap outs, put in AC.
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So we do a lot of projects for customers in that respect also.
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So that's our student production where they're working with their teacher.
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One, we charge about the fifth of the cost of industry because it's a learning environment,
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And it's very beneficial for us because one, it gives the students a real project to work
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So they're building up their employability skills, communication skills and such.
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It also offsets our budget because we do charge.
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So this is honestly, having a full day of shop is really beneficial because the kids will
00:21:43.360
And in some vocational settings, it's not full day.
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So it'd be very hard to leave or take on some of these projects.
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He's there to offer guidance and helping the kids out there.
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It's the same thing as teaching in a classroom.
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So the teacher kind of takes on that contractor role, plans out his or her lesson for the
00:22:09.460
But it's also, you know, finishing a project for a customer, like I said, in and out of
00:22:14.240
And are the kids getting graded on their performance when they're doing that?
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So partially on the product that they're putting out and partially on how they completed
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So this is how we are building employable students is through real work.
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We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.
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So there's that one aspect where the students are working with their teachers on different
00:22:43.840
But then there's also another aspect of this work-based learning where they're actually
00:22:51.280
So because our curriculum is to teach them the field, we can align that to them actually
00:22:59.300
So a student could get hired in their junior or senior year and go off and work with that
00:23:06.120
And not only is that contractor paying them, but they're also getting school credit.
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This is one of the best things that we do because we find when students go out there and really
00:23:16.900
experience it with a employer, they end up staying in the field.
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They make a more of a vested interest in it and make a better decision and stay in the
00:23:26.460
And so they get to leave school to go work during the day.
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During their trade cycle, because again, it aligns with their curriculum.
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So they're, they're still learning what they're supposed to be learning.
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This is like a job and they're getting paid for it.
00:23:42.120
And we have an agreement with the department of labor.
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So a lot of our career pathways that we have here are generally for 18 and older students
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I mean, even some culinary places that have slicers, you have to be 18 to be on the slicer
00:23:58.720
construction itself is almost all 18 and over just because of the, the hazards automotives
00:24:04.220
the same way, but we have an agreement with the department of labor that is part of WBL.
00:24:09.020
Students can go work in these hazardous trades as soon as 16.
00:24:13.040
And that's just because our safety programming has been vetted and approved for our students
00:24:20.640
And when they're working in the field, you know, like when they're working for somebody
00:24:23.560
and getting paid, is the employer also giving you guys, you know, like the school feedback
00:24:29.420
on how the student is doing so you can help with their progress?
00:24:34.500
So they sign on and when they're signing on all, all the verbiage in the application process
00:24:41.020
So we really stress that this isn't just your regular employee, although you should be teaching
00:24:45.540
all of your employees, but this is really a student employee.
00:24:48.140
And the whole purpose of this is to enhance their education.
00:24:51.980
So they're not out there just sweeping floors and cleaning up and getting coffees.
00:24:59.400
They are the mentor and it's kind of their responsibility to make sure these students are
00:25:07.760
One, the student has a journal where they write what they're doing and it's the department
00:25:13.220
head of the trades responsibility to kind of align that to the curriculum.
00:25:16.460
But then we also get a report back from the employer.
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The first part of the report is pretty prescriptive.
00:25:22.600
We have the questions there to ask how they're doing, but then there's also an area there for
00:25:27.740
So we can really understand what that student's getting because sometimes we'll call students
00:25:32.360
back if we feel they're not getting a part of the curriculum.
00:25:36.120
So we'll say, you know, you can't go out these couple of days so that we can teach you this
00:25:40.500
because you're not getting it with the contractor and then we'll put them back out to work.
00:25:43.800
And do you guys have a lot of buy-in from employers in the state?
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Is there a lot of interest from employers in being part of the program?
00:25:51.060
We have over 600 employer partners within our district and that's only going to go up.
00:25:57.720
I bet that's actually not even a correct number.
00:26:00.560
For a while, we've been trying to manage this as well as we could, but now we're instituting
00:26:08.220
And the Career Center's sole purpose will be to kind of wrangle the cats, if you will.
00:26:13.680
So they're going to kind of coordinate the effort that everybody has going on.
00:26:20.020
So they will be the one-stop shop for industry to call upon, but also for teachers and students
00:26:24.840
to call upon just to kind of funnel in all the effort and make sure that the students
00:26:29.800
are accessing them, but also industry is accessing us appropriately.
00:26:33.700
And so, as you said, these kids, they're doing academics, they're doing the trade training,
00:26:36.840
they're when they're juniors and seniors, they're getting on the job training and getting
00:26:42.400
But as you said, they're also having a regular high school experience.
00:26:44.980
They're playing sports and joining clubs and doing dances and things like that.
00:26:50.300
With the exception of aviation in Bristol, because again, that's adult ed, but the 17 other schools
00:26:55.920
have volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, golf.
00:27:00.640
Some of them are in football co-ops, and they also have the availability, if it's a sport
00:27:05.360
that we don't have, but their sending school does, they can wrestle for them or swim for
00:27:10.980
Homecoming, prom, senior outings, pep rally, stuff like that is all very, very common in
00:27:18.240
Each school has a set of clubs for the students too.
00:27:21.740
So when these kids graduate from CTEX, they have a high school diploma, and then they also,
00:27:27.060
they get a certificate in their trade, correct?
00:27:30.640
And I imagine they've worked enough hours to start working right away.
00:27:36.420
So yeah, every field has a little bit different of a process.
00:27:40.840
So like the licensed trades in Connecticut, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC, hairdressing
00:27:48.480
Our students get hours towards their apprenticeship.
00:27:51.500
So they'll get 750 related training hours, and then they get about 1,500 on-the-job training
00:27:59.360
In some other cases that don't have apprenticeships, they'll have certifications like welding and
00:28:05.340
We have avenues for students to get certified or qualify for certification.
00:28:11.820
And so each one of our fields, we have pretty distinct pathways that the students can follow.
00:28:17.540
So with the high school diploma, they could go to college or they could start working right away.
00:28:22.800
What do you see most students doing after they graduate from CTEX?
00:28:26.200
Are they just going right into the trade or what percentage are going to college, et cetera?
00:28:30.420
So I would say it's probably, I looked at the data recently from last year.
00:28:36.160
There's about 40% of our students that are going for full-time work in their trade.
00:28:41.060
And then there's a chunk not in that 40% that are kind of part-time going to school, part-time
00:28:48.400
And then we have probably 40% also that pursue a two to four-year degree.
00:28:52.940
And out of that number, a majority of them are trade-related.
00:28:57.840
So like vet science, for instance, a lot of those students would be going to get their
00:29:02.180
associate's degree in veterinary technology to be a vet tech.
00:29:05.520
Architecture or what we call mechanical drafting and engineering technology, which is mechanical
00:29:10.860
drafting, they could be going on to get, you know, become an architect or become an engineer,
00:29:22.220
I thought it was interesting how some of the kids did the halfway thing that you mentioned,
00:29:26.860
where they'd go to school, you know, college part-time, but then they'd also work part-time
00:29:31.740
in a trade that they were trained in at CTEX to save money.
00:29:35.600
Because I mean, there's been a lot of discussion these days about, you know, the amount of college
00:29:39.660
debt that young people are taking on and it's becoming unbearable.
00:29:43.240
But this is a way that they can mitigate that and continue to get some real-world experience
00:29:52.220
And there's even, especially in our area of the country, there's even companies that
00:29:59.620
So they'll hire them and they'll work for them and they'll actually pay off their school
00:30:05.560
Because again, everyone's trying to build their workforce.
00:30:09.120
Have there been any other states that have implemented something similar to CTEX?
00:30:15.140
I think there's CTE in most every state throughout the country.
00:30:19.420
But what makes CTEX different is, number one, all of our schools are under one system.
00:30:28.280
When you go to, say, surrounding states here, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, each one of those
00:30:34.620
So if there's two carpentry teachers there, for instance, they find their own professional
00:30:42.580
And as they're developing their curriculum and stuff, that's done all in-house.
00:30:51.280
So for me, I oversee the architecture, carpentry, masonry, and landscaping trades.
00:30:55.600
And I have 32 carpentry teachers, for instance, if we just pick one trade.
00:31:07.180
We need that connection in order to stay relevant, to stay up on the times and making
00:31:11.640
sure that our product is what they're looking for.
00:31:15.980
So they're getting the training, like the skill-based training.
00:31:18.720
And then when they're on the job, they're learning employee skills, like how to show up
00:31:22.580
on time, how to fill out forms, things like that.
00:31:25.100
Are you guys also teaching kids how to run a business?
00:31:28.580
I mean, I imagine that's another skill set that...
00:31:30.380
Okay, you might start off as a journeyman, right?
00:31:38.380
I want to own and run my own electric company or electrician company.
00:31:42.360
Do you guys teach how to manage a business as well?
00:31:49.380
Because like we talked about the foundation skills and just the muscle memory that goes
00:31:54.540
into the hands-on skills that they're learning.
00:31:57.380
You know, you can't stuff everything in all at once.
00:32:02.300
Our goal is to give them the skills they need for entry-level employment.
00:32:06.000
But we do talk about when we're exploring the career and all that, we do talk about those
00:32:12.480
But the actual running the books or accounting part of a business or the specifics like that,
00:32:19.800
But imagine by being on the job, they probably pick up some of that stuff.
00:32:24.720
And also by talking to their mentors, they can kind of get an idea of what that's like.
00:32:30.280
So every one of the jobs we do, we contract out because obviously we're a state agency.
00:32:39.000
They get to go off and they get to have the conversation from the very beginning.
00:32:42.420
So I guess they do get that feel on how to speak to a customer, how to develop the plan
00:32:47.460
for the job, write the contract, and then obviously execute the job.
00:32:51.000
All right, so when they graduate, they have enough hours typically to start working, start
00:32:57.700
What's the starting salary for some of these kids right out of high school?
00:33:02.100
With college, you go to college, you have to probably take on a lot of debt.
00:33:05.600
And then with a college education, it might be years before you actually recoup the cost
00:33:15.860
So it's really hard to say because every field is so different, but because our system is so
00:33:22.300
well known within Connecticut, we have a lot of articulation agreements with industry.
00:33:26.640
So I can tell you that a lot of our students get apprenticeship credit.
00:33:30.480
So where a student that's not coming from CTEX would start as the bottom apprentice, in many
00:33:37.660
So they're starting with a year or two of experience under their belt, according to the
00:33:44.980
And then also they have the tools, even those students who start kind of making the not
00:33:50.660
minimum wage, but the minimum wage within a company, they have the tools to advance quickly.
00:33:57.220
So they'll start off as a regular employee down kind of on the bottom, but then the employer
00:34:02.560
can see what they have and they very quickly are giving them a promotion just to keep them.
00:34:07.440
Well, let's say someone's listening to this and they don't live in Connecticut and they're
00:34:11.260
I wish there was something like this for my kid.
00:34:13.360
Based on your experience, is there a way for a kid who lives in Oklahoma where I'm at to
00:34:18.600
replicate something like CTEX has on their own?
00:34:21.980
Or is this, I mean, is it just so it's such a unique thing that it's kind of hard to?
00:34:28.920
Because we are a large district, you know, over 11,000 kids, somewhere around 2,000 staff
00:34:34.820
But CTE, again, is everywhere all over our country.
00:34:38.380
And if I had to pick some key characteristics of good career and technical education, I would
00:34:47.100
Seeing what's in that area, what's relevant in aligning curriculum if it's in a school or
00:34:53.480
aligning training if you're already out of school.
00:34:56.820
In a lot of respects, industry is chomping at the bit to get into schools.
00:35:00.640
So they're willing to come in and give kids an experience, whether it's just guest speaking
00:35:08.880
I would also say experiential learning is very important.
00:35:11.700
So a lot of times when I get phone calls from, again, I'm mostly in the construction trades,
00:35:18.460
I won't hear a lot about the content we teach, but it will be more about the employability skills.
00:35:23.440
So learning how to communicate, be punctual, critically think, and kind of develop your
00:35:29.200
So I think that those are all key items for a student to get into the field.
00:35:33.340
And then any kind of industry credential that you could have is huge because it shows that
00:35:37.460
you're eager and willing to learn and you're vested in your career.
00:35:44.360
Have you seen other states come out to CTEX to take a look at it and see if they could replicate
00:35:49.920
Because I imagine other states are seeing the pent-up demand and the decrease of supply
00:35:54.080
and skilled labor, and they're probably wanting to do something.
00:35:56.640
Are you seeing an interest in CTEX from other states?
00:36:00.600
We also participate in what's called NEASC, which is an accreditation.
00:36:06.400
So we will actually go to their schools and they'll come to our schools to complete this
00:36:13.920
But yeah, we consistently will collaborate with, especially schools in Massachusetts,
00:36:20.160
We will go up and they'll come down and we'll kind of collaborate.
00:36:24.360
I'd love for Oklahoma to do something like this.
00:36:27.160
I'd love to have an option like that for my kids.
00:36:30.020
I mean, are there any students that you're in your experience of doing this for, I mean,
00:36:33.920
you've been doing this for a long time that really stay like,
00:36:35.740
it has nothing specific, but is there like a story where you're like, man, this, this
00:36:39.880
is just really cool that I saw this person, this kid who went to the exploratory thing.
00:36:45.420
They picked up this thing that they probably never thought they would, they'd have an interest
00:36:50.400
And if they've made a rewarding career out of it.
00:36:57.520
My first year teaching, and I won't use any names, but my first year teaching at CTEX,
00:37:01.560
I had a student that was much like myself when I was a kid, you could tell he was figuring
00:37:08.980
And he Facebook friended me probably two months ago and he owns his own concrete business now.
00:37:17.360
So something like that, where, you know, who knows where he would have been if, if he didn't
00:37:22.460
get the skills he needed to work in construction.
00:37:26.400
I mean, I think that that's, that one resonates with me and I have a lot of experiences just
00:37:32.460
So Brent, I think we did a good job of talking big picture what CTEX is about.
00:37:35.160
Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think it's important that people
00:37:39.480
Like what makes it unique or something we haven't hit on so far in our conversation?
00:37:47.000
I think that's pretty unique and I didn't bring it up prior to this, but in order to be a trade
00:37:52.420
teacher for CTEX, and again, this is pretty unique for our district, you have to be a
00:37:59.940
So since I've been in this role, I've probably hired, I don't know, close to 20 teachers and
00:38:05.880
none of them had to have education on education.
00:38:09.540
So in order to become a teacher for us, you'd have to have, if it's a licensed field, the
00:38:13.700
appropriate license, but you have to have a minimum of eight years in the field.
00:38:17.240
So every one of our trade teachers has done this job.
00:38:19.780
So they didn't go to college to be a carpentry teacher, you know, and just learn it theoretically.
00:38:27.620
They were hopefully successful in the field and then kind of made the switch to teaching.
00:38:33.440
Then once they come to teach for us, there's 30 credits worth of college that they'll take.
00:38:39.380
And this is all on how to work with students with special needs, how to create lessons and
00:38:45.500
But they get that on the back end because that trade experience is key.
00:38:51.340
So you have to have the, you know, you have to be able to, you know, talk the talk and
00:39:00.040
But I think that that's unique because I think most people attribute a trade teacher to what
00:39:09.100
And in many of those cases, that person went and got their master's in vocational education,
00:39:17.840
Is there a lot of interest from people in the trades to teach for CTEX?
00:39:21.200
It ebbs and flows, you know, with the industry itself.
00:39:24.880
So I can tell you when the housing crisis in 2008, yeah, there was a lot of people who wanted
00:39:31.060
Right now, probably fewer because there's just so much work out there.
00:39:35.060
And it's a little daunting too, because it's a complete shift.
00:39:38.920
If you're working in the field every day, and now you have 18 smiling faces at you, hopefully
00:39:46.400
But yeah, we don't have a huge issue filling our positions, but it's not like all the applicants
00:39:52.180
that you would get for an English or a math position.
00:39:55.140
Well, Brennan, this has been a great conversation.
00:39:59.160
So they can go to our website, cttech.org, ctex.org.
00:40:03.900
Or they could follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Connecticut Technical Education and Career
00:40:10.140
And employers out there or industry reps can reach out to our Career Center, which is also
00:40:22.740
He's an education consultant at the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System, or CTEX.
00:40:27.260
You can find more information about CTEX at cttech.org.
00:40:31.960
Also, check out our show notes at aom.is slash ctex, that's C-T-E-C-S, where you can find
00:40:37.400
links to resources and we can delve deeper into this topic.
00:40:46.900
Well, that wraps up another edition of the AOM Podcast.
00:40:49.580
Make sure to check out our website at artofmanliness.com, where you can find our podcast archives,
00:40:53.140
as well as thousands of articles that we've written over the years about pretty much anything
00:40:56.960
And if you haven't done so already, I'd appreciate it if you take one minute to give us a view
00:40:59.800
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00:41:03.520
Please consider sharing the show with a friend or family member who would think we get something
00:41:07.340
As always, thank you for the continued support.
00:41:09.240
And until next time, it's Brent McKay, reminding you to not listen to the AOM Podcast, but put