SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Gov. JB Pritzker has proposed a $10 million increase in funding for career and technical education (CTE) in the state’s next budget. That money could be a huge boost for many Illinois students inspired by CTE.
The world continues to change each year and the pendulum has swung into a direction where American needs more people in skilled trades. SkillsUSA is a nonprofit education organization helping kids get a taste of potential jobs.
“For so long, we heard four-year degree was the only way to be successful,” said Eric Hill, Executive Director of SkillsUSA Illinois. “Now, for every job that requires a four-year degree, there’s seven jobs that don’t require a four-year degree.”
In fact, 52% of Illinois jobs require skills training beyond high school but less than a four-year degree. 41% of Illinois workers have learned those skills already.
Students participating in SkillsUSA can learn through pre-apprenticeships and community college training.
“I love engineering and love the challenges that that show me and that I can experience through that,” said Emma Belsly, a junior at Morton High School. “But I also love the leadership and management side of things that I’ve been able to experience through being a chapter officer at my individual school and also a state officer.”
There are 135 SkillsUSA chapters in Illinois with 600 classrooms and 70 employers. The organization said there are currently 283,000 middle school and high school students participating in the program. Roughly 130,000 community college students also take advantage of the hands-on training.
30 of those students took their talents and knowledge to the Illinois Capitol this week to tell lawmakers and other state leaders how much career and technical education means to them.
“You just need to be able to branch out and try a bunch of options because you want to start your freshman year maybe not knowing where you’re at, try as much as you can, and by your senior year you have it nailed down,” said Caiden Brubaker, a senior at Morton High School. “You’re saying ‘I want to know. I want to go into this field, and I want to go in this direction.’ Then they can take their life and, with that plan, it can be more successful.”
Morton High School junior Emma Belsly told WAND News she loves engineering and her hands-on experience through SkillsUSA.
The Illinois State Board of Education is currently working on a CTE funding formula to ensure kids in every school can have the same opportunities.
“It would be wonderful to have more funds to help support that and also help support our registered apprenticeship program, which helps students to be able to enter into an internship while they’re in high school and to be able to have that job path and that career pathway set up for them,” Belsly said.
Caiden plans to be an aerospace engineer when he is older. While Emma is still trying to decide her dream job, she told Mike Miletich that she knows it will involve engineering skills.
“It’s a puzzle, and people like puzzles. I feel like that’s why it’s always been a board game,” Brubaker said. “It’s now becoming video games. People want to go an they want to solve something. They want to feel impactful. That’s what I feel a lot of CTE programs are allowing people to do.”
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