I’m going to take my ACT in a week but have had very little/no practice in taking the essay, and no way of finding how my first mock essay would be marked and where I must improve. I’d really appreciate it if you could help me out and grade my essay.
Prompt:
Vocational Education
For many years, public high schools in the United States emphasized vocational skills-the skills students would need to learn a trade and get a job. Classes i auto repair, office skills, and woodworking, for example, were common. The last few decades have seen career and technical training fall out of favor in public education, replaced gradually by additional academic courses. While many schools maintain a vocational program, these programs are often threatened with elimination when school budgets are strained. Given its uncertain status in many schools, it is worth considering what value vocational training adds to education.
Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about the value of vocational training in education.
Perspective One - Schools must seek to prepare all students for their futures. Career training provides focus for many students and helps schools reach those who don’t excel in academic subjects.
Perspective Two - In every field, the skills workers need today are based on knowledge and communication. As such, schools should focus on academic subjects only.
Perspective Three - No one knows what jobs will be available in the future, so it is not wise to train today’s students for any specific career.
Essay:
Vocational programs are set up to create and harness the most out of skills that are attributed to a successful career in the world of work. These vital attributes benefit all students, even those with weak academic profiles, and thus propels them to a more successful career, which is key to earning a good living for themselves and their future generations, and helps create a better present and future for the country both economically, due to the increase in productivity, and socially, with less unemployment among the benefits. So, from a purely objective point-of-view, vocational training only helps the education of a student, and limits the downfalls of academically weaker students.
However, some argue that the skills gained in vocational training programs are holding less relevance in today’s world than it did before, and will continue to have less & less relevance in the future. This is principally to do with the rise of technology to the fore of development, in construction (cranes, computers to mark out sites etc), manufacturing(automation of production lines) and in the markets (the large revenues generated by the biggest tech companies and the integration of tech into longstanding institutions), to name a few industries. Technology, and particularly Artificial Intelligence, are taking over the more mundane jobs which coincide with skills harnessed through vocational training, so people, tell naysayers, must learn to adapt and must have the knowledge to stay in control of A.I. and operate the technologies. They cite that this will be the source of future jobs at the current rate of development.
Yet the skeptics who use these arguments to back up their point that, under budget constraints, vocational programs’ benefits are becoming more and more obsolete and should be removed, forget that while A.I. may take away jobs, it will not take away work at even the basic level. Skills gained from programs will continue to come into good effect.
Moreover, since these skills benefit even those who are strong academically, training will only unlock more potential as education exists beyond the classroom. Those at the top in the world of work will have to use these skills to good effect to stay at the top, and likewise, budding individuals must utilise these skills to get there in the first place.
Therefore, there is no substitute to vocational training. While schools may face funding issues, they must do their best to keep these courses running in the knowledge that this will prove effective in helping students transition into their respective careers, even into the future.
(On a side note, I don’t actually know what vocational programs are or what they entail exactly.
Also, are we going to have to take ACT tests on the computer now? Including the essay?)