Hard skills
Coming Together with CTE
By Florida Virtual School on December 7th, 2017
It is hard to imagine anything good coming from the devastating winds and rain of Hurricane Irma or similar storms that ravaged homes and communities this past hurricane season. If you look hard enough, though, you can find unexpected positives even in the worst experiences.
As a member of the Florida Army National Guard, I was activated during Hurricane Irma, and there I had the fortunate, first-hand experience of seeing people come together to help others. Most of these people were actively using skills found in CTE (Career and Technical Education) courses: both soft and hard skills. Continue reading
How Career & Technical Education Changed My Life
By Guest Blogger on February 21st, 2017
In honor of Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month, I would like to reflect on the influence CTE has had on my life – even though I didn’t realize it until a decade later.
As a teenager, I wasn’t a big fan of school. Classes, homework, and way too much science! I couldn’t stand it.
However, every time I left my rural campus to assist nurses at the local hospital, I felt the thrill of escape and the fun of doing something new. So, for all the wrong reasons, I enrolled in my high school’s nursing program and was quickly on my way to plenty of time not in school. The perfect plan!
It didn’t take long for me to learn my first CTE lesson: there is much more to a nursing program than wearing scrubs and getting out of class. I’d signed up for a daily, three-hour block of anatomy and physiology, as well as an introduction to nursing skills. Yep, my brilliant plan to escape school somehow locked me into three hours of science a day. Continue reading
Being Competitive in Tomorrow’s Workforce
By Tina Leslie on November 30th, 2016
The year was 1989.
We saw the birth of the World Wide Web, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the television debut of The Simpsons, and my epic walk onto the stage to receive my high school diploma.
As I proceeded to college, I used the skills that I had learned in high school: doing research using a card catalog, typing reports using an electric typewriter, and doing accounting class projects that required a calculator, a pencil, and a lot of erasers.
If I were to list these skills on my resume today, I would be considered an unqualified candidate.
You may wonder how a college student with outdated skills became an online technology teacher.
It’s simple, really. By updating my skill sets and being able to evolve with new advancements in technology, I honed the skills to which I am referring. Those skills are soft, hard, and transferable. Continue reading