WEST CHESTER, Ohio — Career readiness is a focus for a lot of K-12 educators and a state program is helping to make sure teachers are focusing on the right things.
UC Clermont College said it's one of eight higher education campuses offering the Teacher Bootcamp Program.
“We created the opportunity for teachers to spend time and learn about a range of job positions and they go from positions that students can get right out of high school to positions that require graduate degrees," said Kathleen Hulgin, coordinator for the Education Program at UC Clermont. “We’re focusing on two areas that are of highest demand in our region which are manufacturing and health care.”
This week, participating teachers and guidance counselors toured businesses in Greater Cincinnati, hearing about different jobs, the skills needed and the education path workers took.
Thursday, UC West Chester was the classroom for these educators.
“One of the central questions we kind of asked a lot of the people that we met was, ‘What was your career path?'" said Goshen High School science teacher, Michael Kolkmeier.
Rick Brown, manager of Respiratory Care at UC West Chester, was one of the people who answered that question.
“Right out of high school, I went into the military. I was a dental tech — it got me interested in the medical field, but then upon getting out of the military, I ended up going to local respiratory school," he said.
Now 37 years later, he's still working in respiratory care. Brown said he's passionate about helping people, something he gets to do every day.
“Health care in general ... there’s a high demand. Respiratory therapy is one piece of the puzzle," Brown said.
In his presentation, Brown cited data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing respiratory therapy is even more in demand than other health care-related jobs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said employment is projected to grow 13% between 2022 and 2032. In comparison, the same agency said registered nurses' employment is expected to grow 6% in that same period.
These are some of the things Kolkmeier plans to bring back to his classroom, along with the lesson that life skills are just as important as science.
“For me, I go into anatomy, where it’s like, 'Hey, we’re going to do a dissection, but you gotta be able to work as a group to do this job because one day it might not be a fetal pig, it might be a person,'" said Kolkmeier.
