GEORGIA

State Director-Russell S. Clark

INTRODUCTION

The 1968 amendments have brought about significant changes in vocational education in Georgia. The act has served to redefine vocational education in a broader perspective than ever before. It now includes such things as facilitating occupational choice; providing training in a family of jobs rather than just a single skill; preparing the student for higher levels of vocational education; counseling and guidance; providing related instruction for occupations in which students are being trained, or instruction necessary for students to benefit from such training; and job placement. In short, it provides a curriculum designed to move the student from school to a job or to his next career step.

The 1968 amendments have resulted in a restructuring of education in Georgia in grades K-12. We have moved to a developmental, comprehensive and integrated program. It is developmental in its structure with objectives focusing on goals by grade levels. It is comprehensive in terms of providing program options for all students and a vocational enrollment distribution that approximates the manpower distribution. It is integrated in that it is related to other school discipline areas, such as vocational with academic, in order to make both more meaningful to the student. It begins in the elementary grades and continues through each succeeding level-junior high, secondary, postsecondary, and adult, serving as a core around which other school experiences are organized in order to utilize the natural motivation of youth toward careers.

In response to the leadership of the Federal Government as outlined in the broadly encompassing provisions of the forward looking 1968 amendments, the Georgia Department of Education in 1971 adopted the following goals for vocational education in Georgia :

1. To provide programs beginning in grades K-6 that will make youth aware of the world of work and their work role in life.

2. To provide youth starting with grades 7-9 with exploratory and prevocational programs and experiences geared to vocational development tasks.

3. To provide youth in grades 10-12 with work attitudes and job entry skills in board occupational clusters and/or the foundation for more specialized postsecondary education.

4. To provide postsecondary youth with specific skills and attitudes for employment.

5. To provide entry skills and job upgrading skills to adults in, or desiring to enter, the labor force.

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6. To increase the accessibility of vocational programs for those populations to be served.

7. To provide assistance to students in vocational development tasks and provide vocational counseling services, including initial job placement, to populations served by, or to be served by, vocational education.

8. To provide persons served by vocational education with skills, attitudes, and competencies compatible with the present and future needs of Georgia's employers.

9. To provide adequate financing for vocational education and distribute funds in an equitable and effective manner that will provide incentive for expansion and quality.

10. To provide an adequate supply of competent educational personnel to operate vocational programs and to continually upgrade their abilities through inservice programs.

11. To assist consumers to make wise use of income, improve the home environment and improve the quality of family life.

12. To contribute to the holding power of educational agencies. 13. To provide leadership and consultation to local education agencies in program operations, program planning, and evaluation. 14. To interweave vocational education with a total educational system that will educate the whole person.

15. To improve the public understanding of and attitude toward vocational education.

16. To provide for the rapid dissemination of innovations to keep vocational programs up-to-date.

17. To increase the meaningful and constructive involvement of local citizens, parents, students, local educators, and employers in the planning, operation, and evaluation of vocational education.

This is the direction in which we have continued to move in Georgia. and the implementation has been facilitated through the strong support and encouragement of the Federal Government as the provisions of the 1968 amendments, followed by adequate appropriations, have made it possible.

The economy of Georgia is in a state of constant and rapid change and has been for three decades. It is a continuous goal of vocational education not only to keep pace with these changes, but also to anticipate and make provision for them.

Important changes in the economy are:

1. Shift from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing and service based economy.

2. Increasing growth of service industries.

3. Increasing need for professional and technical personnel.

4. Increasing number of women who are entering the labor force. 5. Trend for industries requiring more highly skilled workers to locate in Georgia.

6. Continuing demand for clerical workers, especially those with knowledge of computers and related machines.

Trends in vocational education in Georgia are:

1. Decreasing emphasis on production agriculture and increased emphasis on ag-related courses such as agri-business and ornamental horticulture.

2. Increasing emphasis on service occupations especially health, child care, sales, and repair services.

3. Increased emphasis on the training of technicians to support professional and technical personnel.

4. Emphasis on training child care workers so that this service. will be available to women who wish to enter the labor force.

5. Emphasis on the training of skilled workers to attract rapid growth industries to Georgia.

6. Introduction of data processing techniques to the Office Education curriculum.

The Office of Adult and Vocational Education and the Georgia Bureau of Employment Security are constantly working together to more effectively relate vocational training to employment needs.

Today the uneducated are fast becoming an economic liability. Educated people are the capital of a technological society. In such a society education, including vocational education, takes on added dimensions as the initial entrance into employment requires increasingly higher levels of preparation. Thus, with the continued expension of educational opportunities for more individuals and the accompanying increases in educational expenditures, it is only natural that decisionmakers in our society provide the most economical and effective means for delivering educational services to the broad spectrum of persons needing them.

Education must be made meaningful for every student from kindergarten through postsecondary years. This summarizes our resolve for education in Georgia. The world is rapidly changing and we must keep ahead of the changes in order to survive and progress. This does not imply that traditional education must be abandoned, but it does indicate that tradition for the sake of tradition, when it serves to impede the meaningfulness of education, must be set aside, and new approaches applied.

Because it meets a need in the lives of today's youth, vocational education is beginning to come into its own. However, for this to happen, school boards must give attention to making vocational education a vital part of their educational program. They do this through the policies which they establish regarding its use. These must be broad in scope and designed to shape future action. They must also be fluid in nature in order to maximize the objectives for which they were intended. They must provide a useful guide to action and facilitate the planning and implementation process.

Georgia's recently adopted policies on vocational education tend to do this, and our commitment is to provide for the implementation of changes that meet the needs of all students.

Career development involves the development of the total individual, his values, interests, self-concept and aptitudes. Research indi

cates that a student's attitude toward work is rather well developed by the time he reaches the sixth grade. In current elementary school textbooks, the focus is generally limited to professions rather than spread over the full scope of occupations. Many teachers also place most emphasis on professional occupations when vocations are discussed. Students need the opportunity to view all work in a positive manner and to develop a proper outlook toward work during these important formative years.

Career self-awareness at the elementary level provides a firm foundation for the total developmental concept. It extends the discovery process to the working world and leads the child to develop positive values and attitudes about himself and others in that context. He discovers new talents and intersts and begins to learn so that he can influence his own environment.

Any classroom teacher or counselor can implement career awareness. Fusing career-oriented activities and resources into the ongoing elementary curriculum may be accomplished by one teacher in a self-contained classroom or by a group of teachers working across grade levels or interest or ability groups. In-service programs to enable teachers to implement career awareness are offered through the university system of Georgia, as well as through other resources available through the Georgia Department of Education.

In 1972, Georgia provided elementary career awareness programs in grades K-6 for 3,369 students in 14 projects throughout the State through an elementary staff numbering 84. By 1973 this had increased to 31,950 students in 68 projects with an elementary staff of 408. In 1977 we hope to reach 135,000 students in 300 projects through an elementary staff of 1,800.

Prevocational courses at the junior high level permit students to perform simple tasks in a simulated work environment where they are permitted to work with the tools, materials, processes and products peculiar to a given work-setting. These courses have helped to make education relevant to many during a critical decision point in their lives. In 1972 in grades 7-9, 53,054 students were involved in these activities. This has been increased to 64,615 in 1973 and it is anticipated that the students involved will reach 101,067 by 1977.

An outstanding program made possible by the 1968 amendments is our program of education and career exploration (P.E.C.E. program) for seventh, eighth or ninth grades. This program is designed to allow the student to acquire a base of experience, knowledge, and skills for future decisionmaking and to make a tentative choice of a broad occupational area for in-depth exploration. At present we have 120 programs in the State with a total enrollment of 21,600 students.

The above enrollments for elementary career awareness programs in grades K-6 and those for the prevocational courses mentioned above are not included in the total vocational education enrollments set forth below.

These totals include all occupational vocational education. Progress in enrollments is shown in that there was a 65-percent increase in 1968 over the 1963 figure, a 73-percent increase in 1972 over the 1968 number and an anticipated increase of 57 percent in 1977 over 1972 enrollments. Job Training Enrollments

Job training enrollments in Georgia by job training area and by high school, posthigh school, and adult for fiscal years 1963, 1968, 1972, and projects for 1977 are set forth in chart I which follows. These enrollments include all persons enrolled in courses provided with Federal funds under part B. MDTA job training enrollments are listed separately on the same sheet.

Secondary Programs

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

In order to enable more of Georgia's youth to prepare themselves for successful employment in this changing economy, a concerted effort is being made to develop vocational education as a major component of the high school. A comprehensive high school is defined as a center specifically designed, equipped, staffed, and administered for the purpose of preparing high school youth occupationally as well as academically for their next step in life, whether it be entrance into the world of work or entrance into postsecondary education. The school must offer an occupational curriculum designed to serve regular, disadvantaged, and handicapped students.

In addition to serving high school youth, the school also serves out-of-school youth and adults after the regular school day by offering courses designed for those who have already entered the labor market.