A couple of recent headlines underscore this community’s good fortune to have a top-notch career and technical education program for local youths.
“BOCES students called into service to restore Huey helicopter” on page A2 today details the win-win deal between Orleans/Niagara BOCES and backers of the Eastern Niagara Veterans Memorial in Hartland.
As a service learning project, area high school juniors and seniors enrolled in various trade classes at Medina-based Orleans Career and Technical Education Center — automotive and electricity/electronics among them — are preserving the Bell UH-1 “Huey” helicopter that is the centerpiece of the memorial slated to be installed next year on the grounds of Hartland Volunteer Fire Company. The Huey, manufactured in 1967, put into service in Vietnam and donated to the Town of Hartland by the U.S. Army in 2023, needs some electrical rewiring and spiffing up to make it memorial-worthy.
The win-win in this deal is easy to spot. Teens who are exploring career fields get hands-on experience and a sense of whether they’re on the right track, and Gasport American Legion Post 1253, which is developing the monument, gets capable technical assistance at no charge.
Also making headlines: 76 students studying at the Orleans or Niagara CTE Center were inducted into the National Technical Honor Society this month. According to Orleans/Niagara BOCES public relations director Lisa Bielmeier, only 1.6% of all high school students in the U.S. are admitted to the honor society, on the recommendation of a vocational instructor and having demonstrated scholarship, leadership, service and good character. These students don’t just have to excel in their vocational program, they have to keep up their grades in non-vocational classes, too.
The 2024 inductees come from just about every CTE program offered by Orleans/Niagara BOCES: animal science, computer technology, diesel technology/heavy equipment, allied health, security and law enforcement, cosmetology, early childhood education, electricity and electronics, graphic communications, welding, advanced manufacturing and engineering, building trades, health occupations technician, emergency medical services, culinary arts, HVAC, web and game development, building maintenance and management, project based engineering, animation, film and visual effects, conservation. Hopefully, most if not all of those students will go on to find good jobs and fulfilling careers in these fields, all of which influence the economy and/or our quality of life.
Skilled labor shortages have been noted in at least a few of the fields as older workers retire and are not replaced readily, due more than a bit to the widespread perception of blue-collar/hands-on work as unworthy. A couple generations of Americans will readily recall that when they were in high school, conventional wisdom dictated: if you’re not on the college track you’re on the road to nowhere. Regrettably, it’s only in hindsight — and, perhaps, after struggling mightily with our student loan debts — that we see how unwise, untrue and undermining that counsel was.
Yes, this community is fortunate to have a top-notch career and technical education program for high schoolers. The headlines made by them through the Orleans and Niagara CTE centers are proof of a sound investment in the future — theirs and ours.