Vocational Education: A Piece of The Educational Puzzle

Education without a doubt is the way to have a sure future. Various young minds are always confused about which career to pick especially when in secondary school. Choosing the right career path is a crucial step to self-discovery no matter who you are. The career path enables the students to make judicious use of their skill sets. Apart from school guiding students in selecting the right path, the school also set them up with skills that may be useful to them after school. One way schools are able to do this is by introducing vocational classes into the student’s curriculum; classes like sewing, shoemaking, tie and dye, catering, cosmetics, photography, among many other pieces of training like that. 

Schools have now seen that building a child for academic excellence alone does not cut it, they introduce vocational education which is non-academic in nature, and is related to a particular trade or occupation. Until recently, the major aim of vocational education was to provide the skill set for those in lower classes; this was because those into those jobs were always looked down upon. Fast forward to now, everyone is screaming ‘there is no job’ and the unemployment rate is increasing year after year with 22.562% being the last recorded rate (according to CIA World Factbook). As part of the government’s way of increasing job in the country, NUC (National Universities Commission) made it mandatory for tertiary institutions to include vocational classes into their course work which they now refer to as ENTREPRENEURSHIP. 

Vocational skills and jobs and always received bad reviews in our society, people that engage in them are often seen as those who are not fit for college, hence their interest in learning a skill. What many do not know is that these skills are now becoming what the labor market requires, with the economy becoming more and more diversified and specialized, there is a great deal of demand for these vocational skills in so many industries; fashion, technology, cosmetics, arts, culture, interior, and exterior designs, etc. 

Now that you know how important vocational education is to the economy, what does your child stand to gain when they get this education?

1. Vocation classes broaden the horizon of the students, giving them the real-life practical experience of what they learn in the classroom.

2. Since students are allowed to specialize in a particular area, they become experts and gain more useful knowledge. 

3. It provides employment and an extra source of income. With the rise in the rate of unemployment, one with vocation skills can easily set up him/herself and start getting doing what they know how to do.

4. It makes them responsible and independent.

5. Those with vocation skills are tagged to be specialized which sets them with better chances of employability than those without the skills or knowledge.

Enrolling your kids in schools that offer vocation classes does not mean you see them as dullards, it simply means you are ensuring they gain every needed skill they need for their success and growth in life. In summary, vocational education plays a good role in securing your child a future while they figure out other options for themselves.