SHELBY — When Jacob Meadows started his job as Mansfield Senior High School’s agro-business teacher, he spent four hours every week driving back and forth to Toledo for his career-technical education licensure program.
It was a burdensome trek, but a necessary one at the time.
Career-technical education instructors have different job qualifications than other education positions.
They need to have at least five years of experience in their particular field or industry before entering the classroom. Then, they need to complete a licensure program.
Meadows said he worked about 26 years in construction before starting at Mansfield Senior High in 2023. He also has a farm.
“I wanted to give back,” Meadows said. “This was my way of giving back to the younger generation.”
Still, career-technical educators have new skills they need to gain as teachers. Teaching requires building lesson plans, creating assessments and understanding education lingo.
That’s where the career-technical education licensure program Meadows is taking at the University of Toledo comes in. But the four-hour drive weekly is long, and some say it serves as a potential barrier for other career-tech teachers to enter the field.
Enter: a new partnership between the University of Toledo and Pioneer, the career center in Richland County.
The plan offers a career-technical education licensure program on Pioneer’s campus for educators in Ashland and Richland counties and the surrounding area.
The ins and outs of the licensure program
Historically, according to Deb Heban, the University of Toledo’s career tech education program coordinator and director, career-technical education licensure programs have been offered in person.
There are some hybrid options. Some of the lessons in a CTE licensure program can be taught in an online format, Heban said.
Still, unless a program is at least partly in person, the state Department of Education and Workforce Development doesn’t fund it.
“I 100% agree with this, and I’m very passionate about it, because career tech is a hands-on occupation,” Heban said. “Career tech teaching is hands on, so you can’t learn online.”
But, CTE licensure programs only exist at a handful of universities statewide:
- University of Toledo
- Bowling Green State University
- Ohio State University
- Kent State University
- University of Rio Grande
For the University of Toledo’s licensure program, teachers must complete 24 credit hours over the course of four semesters, or two years.
What does the program offer teachers?
When new teachers complete the program, they can walk away with a higher education level, which in turn helps them move up the pay scale in their respective district, Heban said.
- If teachers enter without a bachelor’s degree, they walk away with a certificate.
- If teachers already have a bachelor’s degree, they can apply for their credits to go toward a master’s degree. To earn a master’s degree, teachers must complete 33 credit hours along with an internship or practicum.
‘An easy yes’
With requirements for at least part of the program to be completed in person, teachers like Meadows have to drive hours in some cases to receive their licensure.
That lack of geographic accessibility for the programs places a hurdle in front of new educators, according to Greg Nickoli, the superintendent at Pioneer Career and Technology Center.
Nickoli said that issue, combined with other factors, makes it a challenge to recruit new career and technical education teachers.
It’s the same content, but it’s not the same job.
Greg Nickoli, Pioneer Career and Technology Center Superintendent
Heban added there’s a well-documented teacher shortage, both statewide and nationally. Career and technical education isn’t spared by that shortage.
Nickoli added unique challenges come with recruiting people from an industry to teach at a career-tech school like Pioneer.
Heban and Nickoli said many career-tech educators take pay cuts to enter the teaching profession. Nickoli added working with students and taking on that type of responsibility can also cause people to shy away from the job.
“You have to figure out, how do I translate my knowledge to (students)?” Nickoli said. “How do I teach them that?
“It’s a different profession, and that’s one of the things that we try to reinforce to new teachers is you’re entering a new profession. This is not the same. It’s the same content, but it’s not the same job.”
When Heban approached Nickoli with the idea to offer the training courses on Pioneer’s campus, Nickoli said it was “an easy yes.”
Heban also recruited TJ Houston to teach the program at Pioneer. Houston is an alum of the University of Toledo’s licensure program and a cybersecurity instructor at the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center.
To both Heban’s and Nickoli’s knowledge, the University of Toledo is the first in the state to offer a CTE licensure program in-person, off campus.
Teacher boot camp
Houston started the program with what he called a “teacher boot camp” for three weeks from July to August. That boot camp wrapped Aug. 8. Six teachers participated. Those educators were either gearing up for their first year in the classroom, or continuing in their second year of the program.
Coursework will begin again once the University of Toledo starts its fall semester, Houston said. The university’s start date is Aug. 26.
The licensure program’s curriculum covers occupational skills and knowledge in its first semester.
Teachers also learn different career-technical education methods, and receive supervision. They conclude the program with coursework in curriculum construction and a seminar.
For now only educators at Pioneer and the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center have taken part in the program at Pioneer.
But Heban said there are many other career centers in surrounding counties for which Pioneer would be a closer location than Toledo.
Heban aims to expand the satellite program, making it available to teachers at those other career centers. She also hopes to have more career centers in other areas of the state offer the University of Toledo’s licensure coursework.
Teacher takeaways
For Eddie McGinty, Mansfield Senior’s automotive technologies teacher who started the licensure program last year, having the courses offered closer to home has made a difference already.
McGinty said the drive from Mansfield to Toledo for his courses last year was a challenge. While education hasn’t always been accessible, his experience with the University of Toledo has been different.
McGinty said the instructors have made him feel like an equal.
This year, by offering the program locally, he feels the university has gone out of its way to accommodate him.
That’s exactly what Heban hoped to accomplish by offering the program at a location closer to educators.
Zach Lozier, formerly the manager of Pro Touch in Ashland, will take over as an auto body instructor at the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center this year. He said the summer boot camp has helped him prepare to step into the classroom for the first time.
The Loudonville High grad entered the boot camp worried about teaching. He didn’t understand how much effort it takes to enter a classroom prepared each day.
But during the boot camp, things “clicked,” Lozier said. He credited Houston with encouraging him to take his next career step into teaching.
As an alum of the University of Toledo program, Houston knows what characteristics you need in a career-tech educator. It requires somebody who can be a “life coach,” and be there for students. Those qualities were ones he said he saw in Lozier.
Houston said he looks forward to continuing to help Lozier, and other educators, through the licensure program.
“The hearts are there, and the rest can be trained,” Houston said.