Students in Hattiesburg High's culinary arts class are learning a lot.
"We learn all the proper ways to do things," said senior Jerome Kirk. "Like using measuring cups, where at home maybe you'd just pour things in.
"We've got to have aprons. And we have to follow the recipe. You don't just make up your own recipe."
Culinary arts, Kirk said, is a good class. For the 17-year-old, who plans to pursue a career in food service, the lessons he's learning are invaluable.
The class is one of eight career tech programs at the high school that will offer professional certification to graduating seniors in the 2007-08 school year. For culinary arts students, it's a food hygiene certification required for employment at most restaurants.
Other programs will offer other types of professional certification geared toward ensuring that kids achieve the qualifications necessary to compete in the global economy, said Mike Mulvihill, bureau director for the office of compliance and reporting at the state Department of Education.
"These days you have to have a great academic background, technical training and hands-on experience," he said.
The new emphasis on stepping up career tech programs - the term "vo-tech" is as dated to today's kids as "home ec" was to students of the 1990s - is a state-delivered guideline that mirrors a national trend.
About 60 to 65 percent of jobs in the country, Mulvihill said, require a high school diploma coupled with some kind of technical training or professional certification. Only about 20 to 25 percent of jobs require bachelor's degree or above, Mulvihill said, and only 10-15 percent can be filled by low- to no-skill workers.
"We want all of our students prepared academically, but there are three exit points to high school these days. One is directly to work, one is to a community college and one is to a four-year college," he said. "The bulk of jobs today require diploma-plus, and our goal is to have all students prepared academically with those three exit points in mind."
One part of beefing up career tech, said Hattiesburg Career Services Director John Simpson, is encouraging students to start thinking about careers at an earlier age.
"Our goal is that all of our kids have a choice, and that they will start in seventh grade making these choices," he said. "They can end high school with a certification whether it be in building sciences, child care or culinary arts."
Hattiesburg offers career tech programs in cooperative education, culinary arts, early childhood services, allied health, business and computer technology and construction technology, and will add polymer science and technology systems to the roster next year.
Some professional certification will be available in all programs, Simpson said.
The Petal district has been offering such certification for some time, said Cathy Davis, director of career and technical education.
"A lot of our (computer network) students become A+ certified, and we're also using Network Essentials through Cisco Systems Inc.," she said. "Our allied health students do first aid and CPR training, and our culinary students do (food handling hygiene certification) Serve Safe."
The Forrest County district will begin offering its building trades, culinary arts and allied health students Occupational Safety and Health Administration certifications next year, said Assistant Superintendent Debbie Burt.
