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Community and Access
Alice Springs Campus
Grivillea Drive
Alice Springs NT 0870
Phone: + 61 8 8959 5201
Fax: + 61 8 8959 5305

Executive Summaries

Joint Vocational Schools, Ohio USA

The career and technical education (CTE) movement in Ohio gained momentum in the early 1960s due to a changing industrial/manufacturing environment. By 1965, the first two Joint Vocational Schools (JVS) were opened and through continued application of a legislative and financial 'carrot and stick' approach, there are currently 49 JVSs in the state.

The Joint Vocational Schools are the localised response to the state-mandated requirement that every senior secondary student must have real access to a career and technical education offering that consists of a minimum of 12 programs (eg construction, auto, hospitality) and 20 classes in these programs. For large school districts it is possible to make their own vocational schools as they have more than 1,500 students in Years 11 and 12.

The JVSs are the response to ensure that regional and rural school districts consolidate effort to reach the critical mass of students to be able to meet the minimum CTE offering. The JVSs are governed by a Board made up of representatives from each (numbers of schools range from 4-30, but average 10-12) local school. Students are dual-enrolled, graduate from their local school, participate in local school extra-curriculum activities and travel daily to the JVS.

The programs offered operate over the two years and there are a series of external, openly published criteria that each JVS must report against. These include reporting employment/further study destinations one year after leaving the JVS. Programs that place less than 60 percent of graduates in the relevant trade area employment for three years in a row will lose state funding for that program.

The JVSs work very hard to ensure local business and industry are heavily involved in determining which programs are on offer and that graduates from the nationally accredited programs move into employment.

There are significant issues that arise from organisational pressures at cost shifting and pushing less-academic and special education students to the JVS. These have been positively addressed through development of appropriate support and content to ensure the JVS students are successful against a range of publicly reported criteria.

There are major differences between the US and Australia in movement from student to employee - the US does not have a formal apprenticeship system, but does have strong reliance upon nationally recognised testing and accreditation.

The movement of trades experienced persons into the role of teachers in a JVS is a very purposeful and supported activity that is highly structured and is conducted by a university.