Kay Harris, state career technical education director, speaks Thursday at the Greater Gardendale Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Kay Harris is very excited about nonconventional education.

Harris, state career technical education (CTE) director, spread her enthusiasm on Thursday as guest speaker at the monthly Greater Gardendale Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Harris said career tech programs are excellent for all students, not just those who want to enter a trade occupation. She said young people who want to be veterinarians, nurses or doctors can also benefit greatly from career tech programs because they give students hands-on experience.

“The hands-on approach allows students to learn what they want to do or not want to do” before spending several years and thousands of dollars in college … and then changing their major, Harris said. “Stop and rethink what you used to think of as vocational education,” she said.

Harris said the percentages for career technical programs are better than those for regular public schools. Statewide, only 60 percent of students graduate from high school. “There is no category (of students who drop out),” she said. “They are bored. They don’t see the relevance.”

But 83.57 percent of students graduate from CTE programs, according to Harris.

Students are apparently all for it. “The people that are harder to educate is the parents,” she said.

There are 15,080 CTE students in Jefferson County. The largest career tech facility in the county is at Gardendale High School, where there are 10 CTE programs.

Harris said 350 students from other Jefferson County schools travel to Gardendale High School every day to take career tech classes. There are 12 teachers in Gardendale’s program.

“As we know, this is a fabulous new facility,” Harris said. The new Gardendale High School campus was opened in February.

Greater Gardendale Chamber of Commerce executive director Kris Marshall said she was pleasantly surprised to learn about what is happening inside north Jefferson County schools with CTE programs and she was glad Harris was spreading the good news to the business community.