Abstract
Career and technical education (CTE) occupations require highly skilled workers. This workforce must possess very specific technical skills. In addition to the technical skills, these professionals need to posses knowledge, skills, and abilities for the workplace that are non-technical in nature. To ensure students have this non-technical preparation, core interpersonal skills and business components are needed in the CTE curriculum. The integration of human resource development and management (HRD & M) concepts in CTE can develop these skills. Understanding the human resource (HR) component provides those entering CTE professions a better systems view of the organization and how the organization functions outside of their own technical area. Additionally, the understanding and knowledge of core HR components, that are not technical skills, are needed when human resource functions are integrated into technical job roles. When entering the workforce new professionals will need to perform HR functions. Often times CTE students are not highly prepared for non-technical skills in their CTE education. Therefore CTE should have HR concepts integrated into the curriculum so graduates are prepared to successfully implement the education they received into a workplace setting. With this in mind, this chapter seeks to provide an overview of HRD & M concepts, discuss how HRD & M are integrated into the work roles of those entering CTE professions, and show how these concepts can be integrated into CTE courses.
TopBackground
CTE can be viewed from a comprehensive perspective that includes many different disciplines. According to Rojewski (2002), entrepreneurship is a possible core component of career and technical education programs. With the growth in the small business sector, one aspect of being an entrepreneur is managing human resources within the organization. This chapter adds to this core component another concept of HRD & M. Knowledge of HRD & M in today’s changing, global, technology based workplace is critical. By definition, the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), stated career and technical education (CTE) is about education and training for individuals seeking to develop skills to be employable, education for advancing in careers, corporate training, and education to update and refresh skills for the workplace (ACTE, 2008). All of these fall under the scope of human resource development for entering CTE professions. Human resource development and management is a core capability needed for individuals who will be utilizing their career and technical expertise in their own entrepreneur efforts and especially in small business.
With business and industry relying more on human resources to meet strategic goals, knowledge in this area is becoming a common core need for success in the workplace. Especially for those in fields that are experiencing technology advances, globalization, and change at a rapid pace like those entering CTE careers.
To understand basic and core concepts in HRD & M it is pertinent to examine a variety of introduction to human resource management texts. Often times these texts have very similar topical outlines and discuss much of the same knowledge, skills, and abilities for people in business and industry. For example, Mathis and Jackson (2007) include sections on the nature of human resource management, staffing the organization, developing human resources, compensating human resources and managing employee relations. Another widely used text by Dessler (2005) included the topics of introduction to human resource management and strategic human resource management, recruitment and placement, training and development, compensation, and labor relations and employee security.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Job Description: A written summary outlining the skills, tasks, qualifications, responsibilities, and general nature of work for a specific position.
Workforce Planning: A process of determining the organizational human resource needs and developing a strategic method to meet this need.
Human Resource Development: The development of personal and organizational knowledge, skills, and abilities to increase personal and organizational learning and performance.
Needs Assessment: An organized evaluation of present processes and anticipated needs.
Job Analysis: The process used to gather information to document a job description.
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): The largest international professional association for human resource professionals.
Human resource management: The strategic approach to the management of individuals in an organization to develop a competitive advantage.
Association for Career and Technical Education: A comprehensive professional association for career and technical education instructors in all disciplines. This organization includes professionals that teach career and technical education at a variety of levels from kindergarten to graduate level, and education for work preparation.