Vocational Seminar for Teachers Offered

A coalition of Ventura County business leaders and educators will hold a daylong seminar in January to update teachers about the latest developments in vocational education.

Open to teachers from local public high schools, adult education centers and community colleges, the free seminar will be held from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Jan. 11 at Moorpark College.

The seminar will be geared to teachers who want to learn more about the movement to tie high school vocational education to the courses offered at community colleges and to the demands of the modern workplace.

As in other areas of the state, the movement in Ventura County to revamp vocational education is being led by a coalition of business leaders and educators, called the Ventura County Tech Prep Consortium.

Statewide, the goal of such consortiums is to design a high school curriculum for students not planning to attend four-year colleges or universities, said Phyllis Throckmorton, an employee of the county superintendent of schools office and director of the county consortium.

Called “tech prep,” the new curriculum would parallel the college prep curriculum followed by students who plan to pursue college degrees, she said.

As proposed, high schools and community colleges would work together so that students could take one continuous course of study from high school through community college in subjects such as automotive mechanics, health sciences or business.

One aspect of the new tech prep curriculum, allowing students to obtain college credit for certain vocational education courses, is already in effect at some local high schools, Throckmorton said.

For information about the seminar, call Throckmorton at 388-4435.