Why We Desperately Need To Bring Back Vocational Training In Schools

Excerpt from Forbes:

"Throughout most of U.S. history, American high school students were routinely taught vocational and job-ready skills along with the three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic. Indeed readers of a certain age are likely to have fond memories of huddling over wooden workbenches learning a craft such as woodwork or maybe metal work, or any one of the hands-on projects that characterized the once-ubiquitous shop class."

Click here to read more about this story on Forbes.com:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholaswyman/2015/09/01/why-we-desperately-need-to-bring-back-vocational-training-in-schools/

Skilled trades are the most in demand occupational group both in the U.S. and abroad

This is the month in our culture that we take the time to give thanks for what we have… a very wonderful tradition.

Again in thinking about our students and the struggles they face in growing and learning the importance of making good decisions, we made an interesting discovery while doing some occupational research.

Many of you are familiar with Man Power.  It is a company with a strong web presence that specializes in employment related issues.  We have found them to be nearly as reliable as BLS in their career data.

According to ManpowerGroup, the number #1 occupational group in demand both in the US and internationally is SKILLED TRADES.  This is a broad category in today’s labor market.  Again our community colleges are in the lead in this arena.  Laney Community College, through its Career and Technical Education Department, provides us with announcements similar to the one below.

An example from Laney:

The Industrial Maintenance certificate at Laney College is a 9-month full-time program (August 2015- May 2016) training students to be entry-level maintenance machinists. Training is in machining, welding, and electrical work. English fluency and 8th grade level math skills are necessary. Tuition and books for the program are less than $2000, and financial aid and fee waivers may be available for those that qualify. These are college courses and you will receive over 30 hours of college credit. The program begins on August 17th, 2015.  Note:  This training can lead to positions with Chevron and other utility type industries who are seeking employees due to many current employees retiring. At Oil refiners such as Chevron, starting salaries are from $75,000 to $100,000 dollars annually.

Based on research from Manpowergroup.us the following are the top ten career areas in demand:

• Skilled Trade Workers
• Restaurant and Hotel Staff
• Sales Representatives
• Teachers
• Drivers
• Accounting and Finance Staff
• Laborers
• IT Staff
• Engineers
• Nurses

To learn more go to:
http://www.manpowergroup.us/campaigns/talent-shortage-2014/

Heald Colleges Closing

California's community colleges are the only way to fly! It seems that the day for community colleges being held in higher esteem is finally here. After reviewing this: "On April 14, 2015, the Department of Education announced that following a comprehensive review, it had confirmed hundreds of cases of misrepresentation of job placement rates to current and prospective students in Corinthian Colleges' Heald College system and informed the company of its intentions to impose a $30 million fine for misleading consumers. In addition, it notified Corinthian of its intentions to deny the re-certification applications of Heald College's Salinas and Stockton (CA) campuses. The announcement effectively halted enrollment across Heald's 14 existing campuses." Many of us have strongly suspected that those TV ads were false. And they appeared to target students who felt that they had no other alternatives. There are stories of students who have gone to those schools, just to find that they were robbed. They are now going to their local community colleges, gaining the skills and finding the employment they were seeking. To our community college sites, keep up the good work! You can view entire article here: https://studentaid.ed.gov/about/announcements/corinthian (Please note that we will be removing the above schools from our schools database asap.)

New Feature in EUREKA: Logged in Time

Logged in time for all users in EUREKA

We recently had a request for a report showing the logged in time of users in EUREKA. The most accurate logged in time for a user would be from login to logout. But most users do not click the log out button. So, the system waits for the next click, if none comes, the login time is calculated from login to last page visited.

We couldn't make it retroactive, but from April 11th (some sites from Apr 13th) EUREKA began tracking time in and out of the website. This information is summarized in Manage Users in EUREKA.

Logged in time for individual users in EUREKA

To view logged in times for individual users in Manage Users:

1. Click More/Less Columns header in Users table.

2. Click Logged in time checkbox in popup.

3. Click Update display button.

More to Come...

If there's interest, we can add a table with logged in times to the User Login Reports.

Other ideas? Our users have the best ideas for new features. Let us know what you need.

The Loss of Gail Schlachter

EUREKA has lost a close partner. Dr. Gail Schlachter, founder of Reference Service Press, died unexpectedly yesterday.

EUREKA started using Gail's scholarship and financial aid data in the Macintosh and Windows versions of EUREKA in 1996. In 2008, we moved her data to the online version of EUREKA and her own website, RSPFundingFinder.  Her data in books, EUREKA and other online resources has helped generations of students get scholarships and awards to help pay for school. Do you have a success story from using her data? Her son is seeking personal stories: http://blog.ericgoldman.org

Gail was passionate that her financial aid data and filter be the best. We spent many hours on the phone talking about the data and filter and how to improve the results for our users. She never compromised the integrity of her data and strove for perfection in what she did. We have lost a good friend and business partner and will miss her greatly.

EUREKA Express: Generate reports easily with these new pie charts!

EUREKA Express is our youngest website! It is becoming one of your favorites. Its databases aren’t as vast as those on EUREKA.org, but its presentation is clear and oh-so-easy for students from as low as 7^th grade through beginning freshman in community colleges to quickly grasp what career decision making is all about.

In the Staff Tools section of Express, we have just added a new graphic presentation that we think you will find most beneficial in analyzing how EUREKA is being used. It will greatly enhance your ability to create those dreaded reports.

Much of the EUREKA Express assessment results are based on Career Pathways. The graphs you will see are representative of one of EUREKA's user sites.

Are you sure your students are getting the best out of their school experience?

A member of the EUREKA staff posted this video here. Check it out and share your thoughts! We think it is worthy of thought, even though it is a bit over the top.

Winter 2015 Website Updates

We have just rolled out our Winter 2015 Update of the EUREKA.org, EUREKA Express, and EUREKAjr websites! We update our websites in the winter and fall, and periodically throughout the year. Here is a list of what has been updated this winter: 

Occupations Database:

• New occupation description: Games Developers-EUREKA.org 
• Associations
• Unions 
• Licensing - California and Colorado
• Wages & Outlook (Employment Projections): 

• California State/Local
• Colorado State/Local
• Texas State/Local
• National Wages

Occ-U-Sort

• Wages updated

Brief English and Spanish Occupations 

• Updated with National Wages

Military Occupations

• 2014 Wages

Programs to Occupations Cross-References Reviewed/Updated

Schools & Majors/Programs of Study

• CA Community Colleges
• CA Colleges/Universities
• UC and CSU tuition & fees, ethnicity (demographics)
• Historically Black Colleges
• Adult Schools
• Regional Occupational Programs (ROP)
• Vocational Schools in CA, CO, AZ and NV
• Colorado Community and 4-year - tuition & fees
• Texas Community Colleges and 4-year - updated tuition fees, and partial updates (ongoing) 
• Updated Short-term and College/University Filters

Our History

HISTORY

A group of high school and community college counselors in the San Francisco Bay Area founded EUREKA as a California non-profit organization in 1977. Our founders were called the Bay Area Computer Educators (BACE).

BACE wanted to provide better career and college advising services to their students. In 1977, even though the computer was in its infancy and not widely used in typical educational environments, BACE decided it would be an ideal delivery mode for these services.

BACE researched and found a software program being developed at the University of Oregon that would meet their needs. An agreement was negotiated and the program was brought to California.

The group began by replacing the Oregon information with California data. All work was done by volunteers while Contra Costa and Diablo Valley Community Colleges provided free computer support.

Initially, only schools where BACE members worked received EUREKA. As other districts became aware of the program, they also wanted access for their students. The program became too much for volunteers and as a result, the first paid staff was hired in 1979.

This marks the beginning of what has become one of the most widely used systems of its kind in California.

Until 1997, EUREKA was only available in California. Today, EUREKA is available both nationally and internationally.

OUR MISSION

To provide results oriented self-assessment strategies, as well as accurate, up-to-date career and educational information in easy-to-use, attractive formats.

OUR PRODUCT

EUREKA is a career guidance resource which has at its core a career development concept that views human beings as continuous learners with a wide array of interests. It presents career and educational options within the context of who users are as humans first, then links them to a world of options designed to fit their desires and preferences. Users can save and retrieve their personal results and information for later use.

The EUREKA system provides the following:

• Six Self-Assessment or Career Exploration Strategies.
• 13 Career and Educational Information Databases.
• Filtering, search, and storage capabilities designed for easy information retrieval.
• Administrative tracking and reporting component.
• Available online with some features available in hard copy.

EUREKA sponsors professional development conferences, workshops, and free webinars. We also distribute Inner Heroes, True Colors, and Scholarship resources.