The Abridged version:
- Career technical education opportunities are growing in the Sacramento region and statewide. In San Juan Unified, students have a wealth of unique options, including aviation and culinary courses.
- Parents and educators have traditionally regarded the programs as an alternative to college. But administrators say mindsets have shifted in recent years, and career courses are beneficial for teens headed directly into the workforce or higher education.
- The classes also teach life skills, such as how to maintain a vehicle or craft a grocery store budget.
During his junior year of high school, Brett Wolfe’s counselor pulled him aside.
“He goes, ‘Hey, you don’t think you’re going to college, do you?’” Wolfe recalled. “I’m like, ‘Well, I do.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, you need to learn to weld or fix cars.’”
Decades later — after getting an advanced college degree — Wolfe oversees a department at San Juan Unified managing a wealth of career courses, including construction and automotive. They prepare high schoolers for both gainful employment and, often, a college education.
While some longstanding perceptions of career technical education as the alternative to a college track persist, Wolfe said the mindset has shifted dramatically over the last 10 years.
Not only in San Juan Unified, where Wolfe and other administrators have made a concerted effort to expand and diversify programs, but also in California and nationwide.
Data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that across California, the number of students enrolled in a career and technical course nearly doubled between the 2019-20 and 2023-24 school years.
Future teachers, doctors, pilots get early education
Every high school in San Juan Unified houses at least one career course. Some, like Casa Roble and San Juan High Schools, have up to five.
Students are able to enroll in courses at schools other than their home campus, pending availability.
The district offers classes that cater to a range of interests, from teaching to medical fields to broadcasting. At Mira Loma High School, students have the unique option of taking aviation courses, complete with flight simulators, drones and other training equipment.
Plans to grow and revamp districtwide, Wolfe said, include adding more classroom space to Mira Loma’s medical pathway, as well as establishing a new veterinary science class at Casa Roble.
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Career classes are not a one-track option
Parents, students and educators have traditionally regarded career courses as the college alternative for students less academically inclined, Wolfe said.
But in reality, he said courses like those at San Juan Unified open a variety of doors for teenagers. Some may use the training to head straight into the workforce and start making a living. Others take the skills they learn in high school and continue into higher education.
Vanessa Reynoso-Orozco, a sophomore at San Juan High School, has plans of pursuing a law degree. But she said she jumped at the chance to take her school’s construction course.
“My dad works in construction, and I help him sometimes,” Reynoso-Orozco said. “Seeing that we have this class here, it just made me really want to join.”
Meanwhile, her classmate and fellow sophomore Humberto Ramirez said he has long had dreams of being a construction manager and owning his own business.
“Since I was a child, I’ve been trying to pursue this,” he said. The high school course offers Ramirez early access to that goal, he said.
Students get a leg up in the job market
At San Juan High School, construction students like Reynoso-Orozco and Ramirez use machinery to craft birdhouses, step stools and coffee pod holders.
Next door, in Aaron Weinberger’s automotive classroom, ninth graders are dismantling engines to then learn how to reassemble them piece by piece.
High schoolers who continue in the car-centric course have the chance to earn dual enrollment credits through a partnership with American River College, as well as take an Automotive Service Excellence test, one of the most well recognized certifications in the industry, Weinberger said. They can also gain real work experience via internships during the school day.
“They leave high school with a plethora of different things that they can use to help them become successful in the field right out of high school,” Weinberger said.
“Either that,” he added, “or they decide this isn’t for them while they’re here. And that’s better than finding out way later.”
Another benefit of career exposure in high school, Wolfe said — helping kids figure out what they don’t want to do, before having to invest years of schooling or thousands of dollars.
Life skills another boon
Weinberger’s class is not just for aspiring mechanics or technicians, he said. His pupils also learn how to be knowledgeable car owners.
San Juan students in Katie Cox’s culinary program have ranked top in the state at annual competitions with the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America – a “home ec version” of FFA, Cox said.
“There certainly are kids that want to be chefs in here,” she said. But, “even if they don’t necessarily go down that road, there’s also nutrition and dietetics, and a lot of other medical jobs they can go into.”
High schoolers potentially preparing to live on their own for the first time can pick up life skills including how to budget for food, shop for groceries and craft meals out of what’s available in their fridge.
“They just learn how to feed themselves,” Cox said. “That’s important.”
Savannah Kuchar is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.
Related from PBS KVIE: “Career Pathways” on Inside California Education: