Don't ask high school students if they're signing up for shorthand classes
next semester.
They'll probably give you puzzled looks.
Ask instead if they're taking computer applications, marketing, personal
finance, computer programming or Web development.
Then you'll be speaking their language.
The business of business education in local high schools has changed and
continues to evolve to meet increasing expectations of students, whether
they're seeking a job right out of high school or continuing their education,
say local high school business education teachers.
"Students are competing on a global scale now for work," said John
Gibson, director of undergraduate and graduate programs for the school of
business and economics at Indiana University Northwest in Gary.
"There is a lot more pressure on kids today," he said.
Hammond High School teacher William Rivera agrees.
"It is so insane. With globalization students are competing against kids
in India and China. As quick as they can, they have to separate themselves
from the pack," Rivera said.
High school students need more than skills in typing -- or keyboarding,
as it's called today -- to get a job or to smoothly transition into a higher
education system.
High schools are addressing the issues.
"The objective is to prepare students with 21st century skills," said
Mary Bachnak, business technology department chairwoman at Crown Point High
School.
At Portage High School, teachers are trying to keep up with trends.
They're teaching Office 2010, the newest version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
Access and other programs, teacher Chris Kern said.
In marketing classes, she said, they learn concepts by running an NFL
franchise. In financial planning courses, they develop five-year plans.
Portage High School teacher Robin Halberstadt teaches her students three
levels of computer programming.
It is a similar scenario in most schools.
At Crown Point High School, seniors can participate in the
Interdisciplinary Cooperative Education program, in which they spend a
half-day at school and the second half on the job so they can explore career
options and learn what it's like to be on the job, Bachnak said.
Another change, said Anna Rominger, dean of the School of Business and
Economics at IUN, is that students no longer have the luxury to explore career
possibilities while in college. That's been pushed sooner to the high school
years.
"They are under pressure to find a career, decide on a major early on.
They are expected to know what they want to do when they get out of high
school," Rominger said. She said high school is when students are introduced
to concepts of various disciplines.
