vocation school

What is a Career College / Technical College / Vocational College?

A career college is also known as a technical or vocational college. This is where you will be able to earn a degree, certificate or diploma in a specific vocation, trade, career or profession. Career schools train students and prepare them for an array of technical fields such as automotive technicians, hairstylists, computer technicians, medical assistants, truck drivers and a variety of fields.

An important tip to keep in mind while you search for a technician or career school is to absolutely make sure that the career school you decide on is accredited by U.S. Department of Education.

How do you decide on a Career and a Career College?

First off, decide if working with your hands and tools is something that you are interested in. Chances are in a career college you will need to master a particular vocation to be able to make a career out of it. Next, learn about your options. What vocation(s) that you are interested in has the best potential from an earnings and time perspective. Obtaining an understanding of what the future prospects are with a degree in a certain career program will help you decide on course of action.

Once you’ve narrowed down your choices your next step would be to meed your school counselor and discuss the various choices you have and the vocations that you have shortlisted. This will help you get a better understanding on the various types of careers out there and what they stand to offer in the future. This will also help you fine tune the requirements you need and the degree path you need to take to graduate. There is a lot of help that you can get out of your school counselor. Make the best use of this resource. Going in prepared with answers to what interests you will usually end up being more productive that going in blind and looking at all the vocation options out there.

The decision that you make here at this junction is a life changing one. It is important to spend some time on this decision, talking to your friends ad family and most importantly to yourself before deciding on a particular course, college or technical path.

Besides a counselor, you could also visit some of the short listed career college campuses and get a feel of what your day-to-day life will be like, what sort of subjects would you be studying and whether you can handle the subjects and training that is being taught at that particular course. The admissions office at most career colleges will also be able to get you in touch with their alumni. Use this as a way to get to speak with them and understand what the future career options would be once you graduate. You will get a better understanding of your real life job or business prospects and how your education can assist you in starting and running a successful venture.

What fields do Career Colleges cater to?

Choosing a technical or vocational career path can certainly be quite difficult. You have a plethora or options, some require you to be hands on, others, not so much. You will find career colleges that offer a selective list of options and some that offer a more comprehensive set of course options. All these are important to understand before you can finally decide on the college of your choice. Sometimes it makes sense to choose a technical college that has many vocational offering if you are not 100% sure of your career choices allowing you the option to switch programs if at all possible during the course of your education.

Below are some of the most popular vocation subject choices

• Accounting
• Automotive
• Business Administration
• Cosmetology
• Culinary Arts
• Dental Assistant
• Electrician
• Fashion Design
• Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration
• Medical careers
• Technical Careers
• Nursing
• Paralegal
• Plumbing
• Real Estate
• Court Reporting
• Hotel and Restaurant Management
• Information Technology
• Art and Design
• Emergency Medical Technician

This list is not an exhaustive list. You may inquire about other career colleges that may suit your aptitude and interests.

Financial Aid Options

Finally, a quick note about financial aid options. Do ensure that when you decide on your choice of college that you check for all available student financial aid you can get from the college itself. We have several detailed articles about scholarships, grants and student loans as alternate means of funding your college education. However the more you can get from your college, the less you have to source from elsewhere. It is essential that you verify whether you would be eligible for any financial aid and whether your college offers any financial aid. The financial aid can be in the form of scholarships or grants. You can also verify if there are any special state grants offered for pursuing an education in a particular career field.

A quite frequent question we hear or have experienced all the time is what next after my degree? In this article we are looking at business degrees in particular and exploring our options.

Once you’ve completed or are nearing completion of your bachelors degree or even your masters degree in business, it is natural to turn your thoughts to your next course of action. So what are your options.

1. Start Working -

   Straightforward choice, pretty much what you probably set out to do when you joined college for that management degree in the first place. If this is still your preferred goal, then start getting active and interacting with your college  placement cell. Nothing can beat landing your first post graduation job while you are still in college. Business schools take pride in their on campus placement initiatives and you should look to take advantage of this as much as possible.

2. Teaching -

   Slowly but surely teaching is becoming a popular option among many business graduates. We get many questions asking us our thoughts and ideas around teaching as a profession for a business degree graduate.  An example is below (name withheld for privacy).

   “I have a bachelors degree in Business Administration, but I I want to be a teacher. Should I go back to school for an education degree? Or would it be easier/faster to go back to school to get my masters to teach in a technical college/vocation school? What are my options for employment?“

   Personally you should look at a teaching career only if it is something you are inclined to and not get into it because of paucity of jobs or other personal reasons. However I quite agree that sometimes you have very little choice and earning a living becomes a priority and teaching can be a rewarding career even if you pursue it for a short while. Here are some of the things you need to become a business or management teacher

   First and foremost is education. A Bachelor of Science with a Business Major or a Bachelor of Science in Business with an education component. Usually though, teaching at a College or University level will require you to have a Masters in Business Administration or in some cases even a Ph.D in a field such as Marketing might be the standard.

   If you are looking to teach at a high school level then you need to ensure that you are state licensed. Each state has varying requirements and we plan on listing each state requirements shortly to help you get better prepared. To be state licensed you will need to appear and clear the required certification exam. (Example- Texas Classroom teacher requirements)

3. Start your own Business

   A popular choice these days, more and more business graduates are following their dream of starting their own company. Many students coming out of business school have very little interest in joining or going back to the workplace. Instead they would rather start something on their own and with venture capital easy to come by coupled with the rise of angel funding and super angels, we are in some sort of a start up boom at the moment.

4. Study further

   Finally, you could look into further studies to improve your qualifications for that dream job. This choice is really dependent on what your preferred career plans are. If you are looking to become a teacher and would like to teach at a University level, then yes, study further, do your masters because without which your chances of landing a teaching assignment is very slim. On the other hand if you are looking to start earning immediately then finding a job becomes your number 1 priority.