How Can Students Prepare for Something They Do Not Know They Need to Be Prepared For?

After high school, a good chunk of the student body enters the workforce – but do these students know what the workforce even is? 

As a junior at Pitman High School in Turlock, Sania Haideri believes that the workforce is a farfetched thought to her.

“I would define the word ‘workforce’ as a job or an occupation that students have to go into after we complete our studies,” Haideri said.

Annabelle Thao, an upcoming senior at Pitman High, said, “I would describe the workforce as the people who are able to and are available to work jobs whether they are employed or not.” 

As some students are not on the same page when it comes to defining what the workforce is, this begs the question: how can California’s next workforce succeed if they can’t even define the word? 

Many California schools offer an answer in the form of job-training courses known as Regional Occupational Centers and Programs. The Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROCP) are career-training courses offered in California for students 16 and older to learn or upgrade advanced technical skills or enter higher education.

Such courses are not used widely as out of 1.5 million high school students in California, only about a third are enrolled in these courses.

For example, ROCP can include the certified nurse assistant/home health care aide, the automotive youth education systems programs, and training programs in trade, technical and skilled service occupations.

 The work-training programs are “designed to level the playing field towards jobs where one can work with their hands and their feet,” said Sen.Dave Min, the previous chair of the Senate Education Committee. “We need to re-emphasize those but also make sure they are pathways to good jobs.”

Some experts say that jobs related to the work-training courses have far more security than careers that require advanced degrees and extensive training, such as  accountant, lawyer, or doctor.

As there are programs available to prepare students for the workforce, the question becomes this: why are such courses underused? 

Min continued, “But I think not enough people know about [such opportunities] because in high school, you’re probably told ‘gotta go to college, gotta go to a UC or an Ivy League, if not, the sky is falling.’”

“And that is largely true but it’s also changing… not everybody is suited to being a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant and a lot of those jobs may be replaced by AI in the future too” finished Min.

Brian Wheatley, Senator Josh Newman’s press secretary, agrees with Sen. Min. “It’s probably more just a knowledge thing; [students] don’t know that something like [the ROCPs] are available.” 

Some say that the focus must be on educating students on what the workforce entails. If students are knowledgeable, they can make educated choices which ensures their success no matter the field they choose. 

Specific fellowships and internships are wonderful, but they are given to students scarcely. As such, participation is few and far apart.

As such, school policies should change to where students are taught in their schools about how to navigate the workforce.

However, said changes are tough to make; many people don’t realize the complexities the education system has, especially in a state like California that houses about 95k public schools in about 500 districts, as Newman explained.

While it’s a fact that changing policy or creating a policy takes time and effort and is not easy to do, getting educated and researching programs that are out there is not challenging. Most resources that students are unaware of is simply a click away in their devices.