VOA慢速英语--美国学生的职业培训如何才能变得更好

How Job Training for US Students Can Get Better

Monica Bentley is the administrator¹ for Edison Academy in the American state of Virginia. The academy helps students learn about things like computer security, car repair, hair and beauty care and supervising² a professional kitchen.

Bentley has many years of experience helping³ students learn about careers. But she recently had trouble persuading one student — her daughter — to try out a job training class at the academy.

"She didn't want to travel," Bentley said of her daughter, whose main school is about 30 minutes away from the career training center. "I wasn't going to make her do it, but I think it would have been a great opportunity."

Sometimes a school system has just one training center for every five or six high schools. And asking high school students to travel from their local school to another building is just one of several obstacles career training centers face.

They need to persuade students to take more than one or two classes. They also need to expand programs that prepare students with basic training for higher-level training after high school.

Another problem is when students are interested in taking career training classes, but their parents do not agree. They might believe the student should take more classes in subjects like math and science.

Bentley said sometimes parents' wishes prevent training centers like the Edison Academy from getting the community support they need. However, once parents see the kind of education their child can receive from a career training center, they usually change their minds.

Charles Wilkinson recently graduated from Edison High School and took some auto⁴ repair classes at the academy. He described the conflict between the high school and the academy. He felt as if the adults in the high school did not support students who wanted to take career classes.

"The attitude that students doing well shouldn't waste their time in [CTE] classes is heavily damaging to the experience and needs to see a change," he said.

Alisha Hyslop is the Senior Director of Public Policy for the Association for Career and Technical Education. Hyslop said training centers like the Edison Academy are good for students who do not want to attend college. But the people in charge of the centers also need to tell people that many students who take classes there move on to attend college.

She said high schools around the U.S. need to work hard to "align⁵ secondary programs with post-secondary programs and build those seamless pathways for students."

Hyslop gave the example of a student who might earn a starting credential for engineering or computer security in high school. After graduation, that student could then go on to study that subject in college.

"Building pathways and strengthening pathways for students is really important as we look toward the future and as the job market continues to require kind of higher and higher levels of skills."

Last month, VOA spoke⁶ with A.J. Muir, who took classes in cybersecurity at Edison Academy. He will continue to study computer technology in college.

Recently, the advising company McKinsey produced a podcast called "Grabbing⁷ Hold of the New Future of Work." In it, experts discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic took away some traditional jobs. But they said it made the kind of jobs that can only be done by a human more important.

Susan Lund, a global labor⁸ expert at McKinsey, said there will not be as many jobs for people who, for example, once helped buyers choose clothes at a store. That is because more people are buying clothing online.

She said her company's research shows that in the U.S., there will be 17 million fewer service jobs over the next 10 years. Many jobs in restaurants, hotels or stores do not require a college education. The experts said they are worried about how those 17 million people will replace the income from those jobs.

Lund said people who can go to a factory and load software on a robot will be more in demand than ever. Those are the kinds of in-person jobs that many students are learning at career training centers.

Lund and training center expert Hyslop had similar things to say about the future of career education. Both said training works better when high school students have a guaranteed next step after they graduate. Lund said some high school programs last for six years instead of the traditional four. Students who complete all six years graduate with a technology degree.

There is a program in New York City where high school graduates go straight to a program at City University of New York.

"And they have amazing rates of graduation and are graduating students who are then ready to actually go get a job because they have some technical skills."

Bentley said one of her most important jobs is telling people about her academy's success. She is looking forward to doing that more when school starts again in August. She thinks once students get a better idea of the class offerings, there could be more interest.

"We might need more academies, too, as the word spreads," she said.

Words in This Story

career –n. a job or profession that someone has for a long time

obstacle –n. a barrier; something that makes it more difficult to reach an aim or goal

attitude –n. the way you think and feel about something

align – v. to arrange things so that they are in the correct position

seamless – adj. moving from one thing to another without problems

credential –n. a document which shows that a person is qualified⁹ to do a particular job

global –adj. involving the whole world

income –n. money that is earned from work, investments or business

1 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

2 supervising   

v.监督，管理( supervise的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She had something to do in the house, supervising that native. 她待在家里，究竟还有点儿事情可以做做，可以监视那个土人。 来自辞典例句
• In addition, nuisance law fails to provide a systematic mechanism for supervising emissions. 另外，妨害法不能提供一个监督排放的系统性机制。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

5 align   

vt.使成一线，结盟，调节；vi.成一线，结盟

参考例句：

• Align the ruler and the middle of the paper.使尺子与纸张的中部成一条直线。
• There are signs that the prime minister is aligning himself with the liberals.有迹象表明首相正在与自由党人结盟。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 grabbing   

v.抢先，抢占( grab的现在分词 )；（尤指匆忙地）取；攫取；（尤指自私、贪婪地）捞取

参考例句：

• The plane was grabbing for altitude. 这架飞机在抢占高度。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He sprang to his feet, grabbing his keys off the coffee table. 他一跃而起，从茶几上一把抓起自己的钥匙。 来自辞典例句

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。