Everybody’s good at something. Each of us has a skill and/or interest that floats our boat — a “trump card” if you will. What is YOUR trump card? Is it math, science, language arts, or music? Your trump card could be painting, singing, solving problems, building a house, tuning a car, or styling hair.
Your primary temperament has a lot to do with what you’re good at doing. After surveying thousands of Blues, Golds, Greens, and Oranges, here’s what they report they are good at doing:
- Blues enjoy tasks that allow them to concentrate on people and relationships. They’re drawn towards occupations that focus on service and the health and welfare of other people. They work best in warm, supportive, harmonious environments where workers are free to cooperate and communicate with each other.
- Golds prefer jobs that allow them to be thorough, accurate, and systematic. They prefer to work in situations where they can see a job through to the end, and then touch and feel the results. They’re practical, efficient, and cooperative workers that respect authority, discipline, and punctuality. They want to work in environments that are traditional, structured, orderly, and filled with other hard-working people.
- Greens are driven towards work that involves an analytical and creative focus. They’re visionary and independent workers who can tune out the world as they work on things that capture their interest. They’re most productive when they can perfect an idea, then move on and leave the project to be maintained and supported by others.
- Oranges tackle their work with enthusiasm so they can quickly move on to other pursuits. They’re great at working under pressure and prefer to work on jobs that are lively, risky, and unpredictable. They grow restless with jobs that tie them down and limit their personal freedom. They’re straightforward, realistic, and practical workers who bring flair, energy, and excitement to the workplace.
So how do people learn to do what they are good at doing?
In the work place, in classrooms, in training, it’s not what we choose to do or take — it’s how well we do and how much we like what we do. Because we are more effective, more productive when we’re allowed to “play our trump cards.”
The fact that everybody is good at something is why vocational education (a.k.a. career education) works. Skill follows interest. Most high school career centers and adult technology centers that provide vocational education, offer two years of hands-on, real work experiences to teach their students the skills employers want.
Vocational education centers are “schools of choice.” That is, students choose to attend the center that focuses on a specific work-related specialty. More importantly, they choose course work that matches their skills and interests. They choose to learn more about the type of work they’d like to do to jump-start their “life after school” career.
Most vocational school schedules devote about two-thirds of the students’ day to specific hands-on experiences and applied theory. That’s about 1600 hours in two school years. Follow-up surveys tell us the thing high school and adult students liked best about their career education was “getting to do work I liked to do.” That’s why vocational education works!
What students sometimes need most is to learn practical skills that are relevant to their personal interests and daily lives.
Voc-Ed works for students of every level and interest. From the valedictorian to students “lost” in comprehensive studies, learning a saleable skill makes sense. For students with special needs, vocational education can be a least restrictive path. Actually, I prefer “most opportunistic path.”
The student at vocational schools is the customer. The mind-set of administrators’, counselors’, and teachers’ is to make school the most inviting place in town. Their mission is to help every student be successful. Cooperative learning works. Working together works. Apprenticeships work.
Matching your likes, skills, needs, and goals is proof positive. Job placement rates are high: about 94 percent. Average daily attendance rates run about 92 percent. Incidence of inappropriate behavior is low: fewer than 10 percent of students ever see their school’s disciplinarian.
While these two-year statistics are encouraging, also consider that, compared with graduates of a comprehensive high school course of study, graduates of vocational schools are the first to be employed, earn promotions more quickly, make more money, are less likely to be laid off, and more likely to become entrepreneurs.
If they choose to pursue post high school education at a two or four-year college, vocational graduates are less likely to change majors. And, compared to their comprehensive studies counterparts, they are more likely to graduate on schedule.
Why? Vocational students make choices that (for them) make sense. They utilize skills that enhance self-concept and confidence. Their paths are similar to college students who choose dentistry, engineering, law, or nursing — delayed vocational education — except that vocational students get a head start, usually in the 11th or 12th grade.