Programs helping students climb to high-paying jobs
Daily Breeze 4/17/07
But now, five years after graduating from San Pedro High, Magee is lining up a $70,000-a-year job as a power-line worker scaling 45-foot electrical poles.
Magee, 23, has completed a career and technical program -- a partnership between Los Angeles Unified and several utilities -- that gave him the skills for the job.
"I wanted to learn a skill or craft," Magee said. "Sometimes getting to the books gets boring."
Five days a week, Magee attends classes at East Los Angeles Skills Center, then drives to Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center in Harbor City, where he works as a laboratory assistant.
Students like Magee who have a high school diploma and career certification may be the wave of the future in Los Angeles Unified.
The district is rethinking its vocational program and considering a partnership with California State University schools to align curriculum.
Under one element of a reform plan circulated by Superintendent David Brewer, students graduating high school would receive a "triple crown" -- a high school diploma, career skills certificate and a community college associate degree.
"(Brewer) is formally and actively linking the middle school right through the community colleges," said Alan Helfman, spokesman for the district's adult education division.
The power-line program -- one of at least 75 certification programs the school district offers -- has gained in popularity in recent years. Now offered at only two LAUSD campuses, East Los Angeles and the Pacoima Skills Center, the program is expected to expand to other sites such as the Harbor Occupational Center in San Pedro, Helfman said.
LAUSD isn't alone in rethinking career education. In November, voters handed $500 million to state career and technical programs as part of the $20 million Proposition 1B. Los Angeles Unified will be eligible for a portion of that money.
Vocational programs offer an important alternative to the college track, said Lisa Snell, education director at Los Angeles think tank Reason Foundation.
"A lot of vocational markets can't get workers from truck drivers to auto mechanics," Snell said. "In some ways, a lot of these jobs pay much more than getting your four- or six-year degree."
Magee was on a waiting list -- which has surged to 1,000 names -- for more than year before he was admitted to the skills center.
He completed 600 hours of course work that resembles more of a job site than a classroom.
For three days a week, students gather to mount 45-foot poles using safety belts and leg-fastened spikes known as gaffs to shimmy.
They work in teams with advanced students taking on supervisory roles as "yard dog" and quartermaster to mimic an actual workplace. The yard dogs keep workers on task, while the quartermaster provides food and supplies.
Students also learn applied mathematics and electrical theory in a classroom setting.
"The structure of our program is student-led," said Chuck Burnett, an instructor and recruitment executive at Southern California Edison.
Edison, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and utilities in Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena hire many of the graduates, Burnett said.