-Career and Technical Programs at Kean High

Finance Academy Is Newest Program in Career and Technical Education at Kean High

by Donte Roumo and J’Quahnia Tyson

Career and Technical Education programs, also known as Vocational Education programs, are programs that allowed students to enroll in occupational courses while in school.

At Ivanna Eudora Kean High School (IEKHS), the program supervisor, Ms.Nancy Callwood, said that the Career and Technical program includes cooking, cosmetology, business, drafting, Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG), and maritime, which is a sailing class. These programs are funded by the Perkins funds, a federal grant and the government warehouse.

“One of our biggest problems that we have in our school is that we don’t have as many programs as we had five years ago,” said Ms. Callwood. Programs like body-shop, plumbing, electrical, and wood-shop have been cut because of insufficient funds. Although several programs have been lost, there is one program that is being reactivated: the Finance Academy.

The Finance Academy is a professional training program that students can take for the full four years that they attend IEKHS. The goal of the program is to prepare students for the business world by helping them acquire certain skills like money management, communication skills, and computer skills. It can also help them get a head start in whatever they plan to do in life.

Ms. Bodecia Gordan, a vocational education teacher, has worked with the Finance Academy in the past. “Once long ago, the Voc Ed classes were tracked, so once you signed up for one class, you signed up for the whole program,” she said. “When you got to the end of the Academy, we send you out on job training and you take a test down at Department of Labor. Once you pass the test, you received a certificate and was considered marketable, which meant you could acquire a job right of high school.”

The teachers that will be involved include one each from the English and Math departments and all Vocational Education teachers. This program will also be part of a national program called the National Academy of Finance. The Finance Academy will be starting in the fall semester of the 2013.