Thomas A. Edison CTE High School provides students with a unique start to their future through a certification system for each shop class. However, many students question whether the pathways are beneficial after graduation. Edison graduates speak about their post-graduation experiences and how their pathways have helped them.
Many Edison students doubt how effective their shop classes and certifications can be after graduation. Students have their own personal interests and ideas of what they want to do with their future; therefore, 90% of Edison graduates choose to pursue post-secondary education instead of entering the workforce immediately (Thomas A. Edison CTE High School).
“I would say that students underutilize their certification. They undervalue it, and they don’t know how to advertise themselves when they graduate from here to say, no, I’m industry-ready,” said Ms. Rosario, the Work-Based Learning coordinator at Edison.
Certifications are administered through CompTIA, Pearson VUE, Certiport, NOCTI, and NCCER, which are widely recognized industry testing partners. These allow students to build their professional resume and careers if they choose to pursue said pathway.
Moreover, Edison graduates are offered many internships and hands-on experiences in shop class that build both technical skills and soft skills for students.
“Recently, my monitor stopped working, so I had to retrace some steps and realize what are the things that I need to use, or replace, or fix so I can get it to work again,” said Israel Doman, Edison graduate from the class of 2025. He was in the IT specialist shop class, where they worked on breaking apart computers and monitors in order to diagnose and fix any problems with the respective product. He effectively translated his technical skills into everyday use.
“Regardless of what you do in your shop class, you also gain that career experience that really helped me like master the interviewing process and things of that nature, and just getting involved with work early and having that experience, so I would say it helped a lot,” said Jada Primo, Edison graduate from the class of 2025. She explained that these early work experiences allowed her to build effective interview skills, showing that internship experiences allow Edison students to build soft skills.
Shop programs also open the opportunity to explore and find what the student is most interested in. “Going into the robotics program, it kind of like opened my eyes on a different like lifestyle. And over time, growing up from freshman year to senior year, you have this internal character development,” said MD Arnob Hossain, Edison graduate from the class of 2024. His robotics program introduced him to a new line of study, which he later chose to pursue in college as well as secure a position in a start-up engineering firm.
Nonetheless, each experience is different. Many students chose not to pursue their CTE pathways, yet leave Edison with crucial skills.
“Edison gave us the tools to go into those spaces and be confident about the work that we were doing,” said Tiffany Ali, an Edison graduate from 2018. Her experience was different as she chose to pursue law, but spoke about how effective her shop class was at helping her become disciplined and prepare her for a new environment in college, making it an easy transition.
Overall, each pathway is designed to help you in many different ways instead of just providing you with a certification. How you choose to pursue your dreams in the future is going to be different from others, but fear and uncertainty should not stop you.
“Uncertainty is a thing that you’ll face everywhere in life. And the piece of advice I’d say it’s never too late to pivot to a new plan. It’s never too late to change,” said MD Arnob Hossain, Edison graduate from the class of 2024.
