Harrative: In a letter to Dr. Carl Lamar, dated March 10, 1975, I first indicated to hi that Region line needed to construct a Regional Office to house the regional staff. For the past ten and one-half years, Region Nine has rented office space to house the regional staff. This has been both expensive and at times inadequate. At this time I know that I am speaking for our entire vocational staff in Region Nine in making this request for facilities to house the regional staff. A Regional Office comprising 5,000 square feet to adequately house regional staff and care for immediate and future needs is proposed. The regional staff of Region Nine serve a ten-county area (Gateway and Buffalo Trace ADD districts). Vocational programs are housed in four facilities for direct programs, one regional university, one community college and fourteen high schools. A Regional Office in the forehead area would be no more than a one-hour Grive from any facility. A map is included showing the boundries of Region Nine and the location of the proposed Regional Office. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION Vocational Education is as American as apple pie (fried, baked, or boiled). Part of our problem is recognition. Vocational Education is serving needs in our economic matrix. Programs in Vocational Education are the most adaptable of any educational delivery system. Therefore, Vocational Education is the most viable educational delivery system we have. Vocational Education is coming of age because of its continuing track record. However, some in higher education and those academically inclined in the secondary school may consider Vocational Education as an "illegitimate" education delivery system; it doesn't have the pedigree Higher Education (semester, quarter hours) - Secondary Education (Carnegie units) - These are measures of their homogeneity. Vocational Education has no common denominator for its pedigree, we have used clock hours of instruction and competencies. I proposed a pedigree for Vocational Education and measures of validating this pedigree with higher education and secondary education to this committee two years ago. A measure of instruction called a vocational unit (30 hours of instruction) might be used to measure vocational programs and equate it with higher education and secondary education. A thing as simple as a pedigree (vocational unit) might help give Vocational Education the legitimacy it needs to be recognized as a viable educational delivery system that can fill the gap for training workers to meet the occupational needs in our social, economic, political society. Institutions (state vocational-technical schools and area vocational education centers in Kentucky) providing vocational programs for students at the secondary and adult levels, typically, report progress of students by competencies learned and/or clock hours completed. The purpose of this article is to recommend for consideration the vocational unit as a measure of instruction for vocational programs. The author, in discussing this concept with vocational educators, has found broad consensus for the concept. If Vocational Education is to take its rightful place as one of the dominant educational delivery systems along with secondary education and higher education, a unit to measure instruction must be established. The Vocational unit for Vocational Education can be analogous with the Carnegie Unit for secondary education and the semester hour for higher education. The following nine points are presented in support of the vocational unit and three recommendations follow to implement the vocational unit as the common denominator for measuring vocational programs and providing articulation with secondary and higher education delivery systems. 1. 2. 3. Vocational Education is a relatively new educational delivery system. Its historical base is much more recent than the secondary school and higher education. Vocational Education institutions typically grant certificates and/or diplomas for programs completed based upon clock hours or competencies learned. Vocational Education typically recommends to secondary schools clock hours of instruction and/or competencies accomplished which they equate into Carnegie credits and to higher education, clock hours of instruction and/or competencies accomplished which they equate into semester hours. 4. Vocational Education has no common denominator to equate clock hours into Carnegie credits in the secondary school or semester hours in the higher education institution sense. 5. Vocational Education, as far as I know, does not grant either Carnegie credits or semester hours for work completed but has functioned in the role of a recommending institution only. 6. Vocational Education needs a unit of measure (equivalency) to translate clock hours and/or competencies learned into a form of equivalent credit. This unit needs to be easily equated with Carnegie credits in the secondary setting and semester hours in the higher education setting. 7. Vocational Education could establish a unit of measure, a vocational unit. This unit, could or should, represent 30 hours of satisfactory vocational training completed. 8. 9. A Carnegie credit is based upon one hour per day of satisfactory learning completed for 175 days, less excused absenses, etc. A semester hour is based upon one hour of satisfactory instruction completed per week for 15 weeks, less excused absenses, etc. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. 2. 3. One vocational unit be granted for 30 hours of satisfactory vocational training completed or its equivalent One vocational unit be equated to 0.2 Carnegie credit with consent of a diploma granting secondary school One vocational unit be equated to one semester hour with consent of a diploma granting higher education institution NOTE: Vocational competencies can be equated to clock hours, thence to vocational units to enhance ease of transfer to secondary schools and institutions of higher education. This article was written by: Dr. John H. Vansant, Regional Director Vocational Education Region Nine P. O. Box 698 32 S Christy Phone - (606) 784-7541 23-897 0-83--8 |