Michael Herrera, Ed.D., Executive Director of Upper Bucks County Technical School and Vice President of Region 1 on the national board of the Association for Career and Technical Education, discusses how high-quality career and technical education connects students' interests to real economic impact. Herrera shares striking results from his school's cooperative education program, including students earning over one million dollars through paid co-op experiences and 93% of participating students receiving full-time job offers from their co-op employers after graduation. He explains how the school's relationships with more than 250 industry partners keep curriculum aligned with current and emerging fields. The conversation explores his distinctive approach to treating language as an economic asset, crediting students' bilingual abilities to open doors in healthcare, law enforcement, and manufacturing, as well as his work building employability skills alongside technical and academic instruction. Herrera makes the case that career-connected learning should be a right for every student, not the exception, and offers a vision for how educators, employers, and policymakers can work together to expand access to high-quality CTE nationwide.
Transcript
Julian Alssid: Welcome to the Work Forces podcast. I'm Julian Alssid.
Kaitlin LeMoine: And I'm Kaitlin LeMoine, and we speak with innovators who are shaping the future of work and learning. Together, we unpack the complex elements of workforce and career preparation and offer practical solutions that can be scaled and sustained. This podcast is an outgrowth of our Work Forces consulting practice. Through weekly discussions, we seek to share the trends and themes we see in our work and amplify impactful efforts happening in higher education, industry, and workforce development all across the country. We are grateful to Lumina Foundation for its past support during the initial development and launch of this podcast and invite future sponsors of this effort. Please check out our Work Forces podcast website to learn more. And so with that, let's dive in.
As we head into summer, we find ourselves reflecting on the school year that is winding down and anticipating the one that is right around the corner yet again. In so many of our conversations on this podcast and in our consulting work, we talk about workforce development and career readiness from the vantage points of higher education, employers, and training organizations. And today we're turning our attention to career and technical education programs in the K-12 space that are preparing young people for the world of work.
Julian Alssid: That's right, Kaitlin. And it is striking how much innovation is happening at the individual school level, often quietly and without enough recognition. CTE has certainly come a long way from the vocational education of a generation ago. And today's most effective programs are building career pathways, embedding work-based learning, and meeting students where they are to open doors to economic mobility.
Kaitlin LeMoine: And this brings us to our guest today. Michael Herrera is the executive director of Upper Bucks County Technical School in Pennsylvania and vice president of Region One on the national board of the Association for Career and Technical Education, or ACTE. He's a recognized leader in career-connected learning and has led initiatives that expand work-based learning, industry-recognized credentials, and employer-aligned pathways that open doors to economic mobility for high school students. Michael, welcome to Work Forces. We're so glad to have you here with us today.
Michael Herrera: It's a privilege and honor. Thank you so much for having me here today.
Julian Alssid: So Michael, to kick us off, please tell us about your background and your dual roles both as executive director of your CTE school and as vice president of Region One on the ACTE board.
Michael Herrera: I'd be glad to. As mentioned, proud executive director of Upper Bucks County Technical School. I also proudly serve on the ACTE Region One Board of Directors for my Association for Career and Technical Education. I become increasingly passionate about career-connected learning because I see firsthand what happens when students understand what they're learning and how it connects to their future. Our theme is from interest to impact. Whether it's an industry credential, work-based learning experience, apprenticeship, college pathway, or an employment opportunity, students become far more engaged when learning has purpose. At UBCTS, we serve 900 students across 23 career pathways, technical programs, and our focus is helping students develop the skills, experiences, and confidence needed to thrive in a rapidly changing economy.
Kaitlin LeMoine: And Michael, just a little bit more on your background, you've been at this work for some time, correct? You've been in this role for some time and leading this work for many years.
Michael Herrera: I have over two decades in career and technical education.
Kaitlin LeMoine: So drawing on your background, this experience, these many years in this space, when you think about career and technical education, what does high-quality career-connected learning look like in practice? And what role does on-the-job and work-based learning play in your model? You mentioned it in your intro here, but would love to hear you talk a little bit more about that and walk us through some examples.
Michael Herrera: Let me work backwards. Our students left—we had a senior ceremony last week.
Kaitlin LeMoine: Congratulations.
Michael Herrera: Thank you. Our students earned over one million dollars through a nationally recognized school-to-work program. That's the impact. Our students worked over 67,000 hours just during the school day. It does not include nights and weekends, as that number will far exceed that. That's the power for me for career and technical education. We had 110 industry partners that shared, and 93% of our students were offered full-time employment. So all of our students left with industry-recognized credentials and they left with a lot of pride. There should be pride in the dignity of work right now in our society. I firmly believe that career and technical education builds stronger individuals, families, and communities. And that's the power of CTE and career-connected learning. It gives people hope. I believe that this provides socioeconomic mobility. Many of our students, whether they have an IEP or come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, this opportunity gets them on an equal playing field. And it all starts with our interests. We use the term here at Upper Bucks, "ikigai"—purpose, passion. When, according to NPR, 68% of adults hate their job, that's a problem. We have a critical skills gap. So we like to really hope and instill what makes that student excited. What makes them go out, work those hours, and have that pride. And ikigai for us is what the world needs, what you love, what makes you money. When I started in Career Tech Ed years ago, we asked students, why do you go to school? And the answer was always to learn, which we are all lifelong learners, but without that purpose and that passion and that desire, that spark is not there. And what we do here at Upper Bucks in career-connected learning, we connect a student's education with the workforce.
Julian Alssid: So just as a follow up, Michael, since students are coming in and may not have a whole lot of experience and knowledge about the workforce, how do you even introduce them to the different possibilities and begin to help them find areas they'd like to explore?
Michael Herrera: We are bringing students in as early as first grade through our summer camps because our students have the experience, they have the skills and the aptitude, but may not necessarily have the interest. So exposing them to the benefits of what we offer, what the world needs, what's going to give them an opportunity to become stronger individuals and build stronger communities is just opening the doors, starting as first graders, working with our sending schools, helping them find their interests and their aptitudes is critical for us. At the same time, what we've really done was we did our best to communicate that. As you mentioned, vocational career and technical education can no longer be the best-kept secret. During COVID, when a lot of the world was shutting down, career and technical education accelerated. We are the frontline workers. We're the workers that are going to keep the economy growing. And it was at that time, in order to create a COVID safety plan, when we placed our students on our school-to-work program, we invited the parents, we invited the mentors, and we met at the businesses. That became our signing day. So what we've done is we've also put that on social media and shown the importance, no different than an athlete or any other type of signing day. And so we wanted to identify it, celebrate it, and then replicate it. We've grown since then, and now we place a banner: "We employ a UBCTS student". So when we talk about the return on investment with education and our community members are driving by over a hundred businesses that are hiring our students, they're seeing the firsthand knowledge of career and technical education. And they're seeing the partnership that we have with business and industry to help guide, build those stronger students and communities.
Kaitlin LeMoine: Michael, you mentioned in discussing the recent graduation of some of your learners, your 110 industry partners. I would love to hear a little bit more. I mean, that's a lot of industry partners. Can you talk a little bit about how you've gone about building out those partnerships and what are different models through which learners engage with those industry partners?
Michael Herrera: I think it's a partnership. We were a national finalist in the Career Z Challenge for many of those principles that I just mentioned. It's a partnership. So we have over 250 business and industry professionals that come in and help modernize our curriculum. So we're not only preparing students for the work today, but in the future, partnering with organizations like Aerium in terms of drones, aviation, and emergent industries. That's the difference in career and technical education is we're constantly adapting to meet current and future needs in the industry. We hold that relationship sacred in that there's an agreement, there's a partnership. So we work with business and industry, we tailor our curriculum to fit their needs. We do site visits once per month. We help communicate between the students and the school in our programs, ensuring success. So I really appreciate you bringing that up, Kaitlin. It's not by accident; it's with intention, it's with detail, and it's with relationships. We talked a little bit about our graduation, but one of the things that we're most proud about is at the end of the year with award ceremonies, having business and industry come in, celebrating that relationship, seeing students offered full-time jobs, apprenticeships, and scholarships. They're investing in the students and their future. And being able to share that and be a part of it is really, really meaningful to me.
Julian Alssid: Yeah, that really comes through across the airwaves. So, one of the distinctive ideas that you've put out there is the idea of treating language as an economic asset for your students. And how does that lens kind of shape the way CTE programs should be designed, and what does it look like in practice?
Michael Herrera: So I had an opportunity to visit an organization where there was a big movement with the Seal of Biliteracy. And we became involved as a career and technical school because we looked at it from a different lens. Language is an academic subject, but it's also a critical workplace skill. So our initiative using language as an economic asset, which we believe is critical to our thriving economies and national defense, we began to credential our students' ability. And about three years ago, I had an opportunity to sit on the stage at the Seal of Biliteracy summit. And I was on a stage with someone from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. And they mentioned approximately 120 languages spoken there, 20 full-time translators, and they just didn't have enough to fill that gap. So we came back to the school working with Language Testing International and ACTFL, and we began to credential our students' language ability. It started off with almost like a student find. It was really hard to identify what students had the superpower. And many of them didn't look at it as an asset. It was something that was not to the forefront. So imagine our student that's in healthcare who already has her CNA, going to get their RN, but is credentialed in one or two other areas, whether it's Spanish, Mandarin, or this year Turkish, and it was really a game changer for us. So we're very proud and we just believe that that opens doors; that's a credential that's needed.
Kaitlin LeMoine: Well, and to value that really critical skill in a way that is, as you're saying, valuing it from the perspective of earning a credential, I feel like just further raises the impact. It's really interesting to hear you share more about that, Michael.
Michael Herrera: And that was really interesting working with organizations like Digital Promise and Global, with a lot of the manufacturing coming back, this is a superpower. We know that many businesses are losing opportunities. So whether it's in dental, whether it's law enforcement, whether it's our students that are entering the military, it's a great way to be able to highlight that. And when we talk about global initiatives, we meet students where they are. We're credentialing their languages. We're giving them opportunities to become credentialed. We're giving them opportunities to hone their crafts in our technical schools. Here's a wonderful example: we're part of the NASA Hunch program. So our students are working on building parts in space. And our instructor had the students working on a new part. He wanted to make a model of it before developing and making those parts. And one of our students, it was a female student, went back to the instructor and stated, "I'm sorry, I can't make the model. I don't have all the dimensions." Well, through a lot of emails later, through NASA, she was right. So think about that impact and think about the importance of our underclassmen working on these real-world projects with credentials; think about the innovation, the manufacturing, where we are in this country, and the power of that. So those are just the opportunities that really separate us, and where you see the power of career-connected learning.
Kaitlin LeMoine: So I guess drawing on that last example, as we think about how to further expand the power of that learning, what do you see as the changes that need to happen systemically to expand access to high-quality CTE programs? And where do you see the most promising opportunities emerging either through either of your roles or both of your worlds?
Michael Herrera: I think we're at a critical age right now in education with the advent of AI, with the advent of our educational systems. Our model has been around for years and it's been developed. So I think really what we kind of take a look at is how do we expand that to all students? And I was working with Mark Perna, who's a national voice in career and technical education. And he cautioned me to say, "Michael, it's great for the role, the innovation you're doing with career and technical education, but how can we enhance that to career-connected learning to serve all students?" And that was great advice. So I think our model is we focus on employability, technical, academic—that has to be built in through all of our educational systems. There are some scary statistics with employability. And over the last two years, we've had a national gold medal winner and a bronze medal in that employability. So again, being able to be on the workplace, I believe, is an excellent social-emotional curriculum, and just being able to partner with that. But when we have and see some of the statistics, like 53% of recent grads struggle with eye contact, or the 50% with unreasonable compensation. As much as 15% of college graduates may be bringing a parent to the interview, we've got to really change the way our educational systems are working. So again: employability, technical, and academic. Our instructors are showing the value of academic integration through literacy, through math, because it's applied. And then obviously the technical skills. So we look at that. I'm a big believer in the school-to-work pipeline. 77% of college graduates felt they learned more after six months on the job than after the completion of their university degree. It's a scary statistic for me. Some statistics say 50% of students believe their college major will lead to a good job. So again, returning back to our themes: interests, impact, what the world needs, what makes you money, what makes you happy, how do we then replicate that and provide these opportunities for all students?
Kaitlin LeMoine: Well, and how to navigate that framework across a lifespan too, right? I think that is currently one of the things I'm thinking a lot about is just the world is moving very quickly. And as you said, I think your connections to industry can help the coursework and assignments to remain relevant and pretty applied. But how do we all as people, as lifelong learners, navigate a framework where you're regularly reevaluating interest, passion, economic mobility, and bringing that together across a lifespan?
Michael Herrera: And I think that's it. I've done a webinar with Dr. Alveda King; she's the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King. And we talked about career-connected learning being the new civil right. My dissertation in the past was content area literacy, and I still believe literacy is the key to economic prosperity, but I've expanded that recently and really believe in career-connected learning. Right now, Secretary McMahon is emphasizing workforce readiness, career pathways, work-based learning, industry-recognized credentials, and apprenticeships, like we talked about at the national level; these all align with what we believe in career and technical education, a strong alignment between not only education, but labor. When I started about 15, 20 years ago, believe it or not, apprenticeship did not count as a positive placement for students. It was all about college for all. And regardless of political affiliations, career and technical education from both sides of the political aisle, along with independents, community members are seeing the value and importance of that. One other area that I'd like to highlight is we're in a rural area. Our local EMS would have taken about 15 minutes just to get to the school, to come here. So one of the things that we've done was we built a substation for our EMS right at the school. We have 800 students. We're working with them to build EMS, fire, law enforcement, and a lot of the work that we're doing with drones. Our students are getting involved with it at the early stages. And again, that's just one example of how CTE builds stronger communities. Our students will be working alongside with them through ride-alongs. They'll come in, they work with our students. We're in hazardous industries right here; we're very fortunate, we have a strategic alignment with OSHA. But how great knowing is that we have that EMS substation right here in the front of our school partnering. And going back to the language, imagine that our students that are riding along have the ability to communicate, right, because we know that communication is critical. When you look at business and industry and what their needs are, communication is at the top of the list. So those who are able to do that in multiple languages just have that great advantage.
Julian Alssid: So Michael, our audience are the educators, the workforce practitioners, the employers, the policymakers who need to build the system that we're talking about and are trying to build the system that we're talking about. A question we like to ask of our guests is how can our audience become forces in the field, and in this case, in expanding access to high-quality career and technical education?
Michael Herrera: I would assure every learner in America has meaningful access to career-connected learning. From the interest, from being exposed to business and industries, to careers. As early as kindergarten, I think we can have some of these conversations about careers. Every student should be able to explore those careers as they go through the system, engage with employers, earn industry-recognized credentials, or skills through alternative routes, which would be familiar with your audience, participate in work-based learning, and understand the connection between education and opportunity. So career-connected learning shouldn't be the exception; it should be experienced by everyone. The future belongs to systems that connect education and workforce development. When students see that pathway, they engage. When they engage, they succeed. And when they succeed, communities, employers, and economies all benefit.
Kaitlin LeMoine: Thank you so much for joining us for this conversation today, Michael. As we close out today, how can our listeners learn more and continue to follow your work?
Michael Herrera: Right now, LinkedIn—please reach out, and I am really looking forward to continuing to learn best practices. I firmly believe when much is given, much is expected. So my role with the ACTE, being able to visit different areas and states, is incredible. So I just wanted to finish with this. I had a great opportunity to work with the UFT in New York, where they were building AI systems. Some of our partners in upstate New York, the BOCES, are developing those K-20 ecosystems together. I'm going to be leading a Northeast Region Summit in October, where we'll have a hundred school leaders and workforce development professionals continue this conversation. And I'd like to offer the audience, please reach out. I'd love to be able to share ideas and also learn from all the great things that are happening around the country.
Julian Alssid: Well, thanks so much, Michael, for taking the time to speak with us today at this very busy time of the year, and I hope you have a great wrap-up to this current year and a wonderful summer holiday.
Michael Herrera: Thank you so much. Thank you.
Kaitlin LeMoine: We hope you enjoyed today's conversation and appreciate you tuning in to Work Forces. Thank you to our listeners and guests for their ongoing support, and especially thanks to our producer, Dustin Ramsdell. If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast or want to check out more episodes, please visit workforces.info/podcast. You can also find Work Forces wherever you regularly listen to your favorite podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, like, and share it with your colleagues and friends. And if you are interested in learning more about the Work Forces consulting practice, please visit workforces.info/consulting for more details about our multi-service practice.
