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A high school tech class in Platte City, Missouri, is giving students hands on technical experience. Part of our American Graduate Getting to Work Initiative made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Watch as a recent high school graduate discusses her advanced post-high-school training with LMV Automotive Systems in Liberty, Missouri.

There’s an old saying that some folks run toward the fire, other folks don’t. Communities across the country are looking for more folks willing to run toward the fire.

There are few more mission-driven careers than being a firefighter. Just listen to the students and teachers at the Fort Osage Career & Technical Center.

Career and technical education is a modernized version of what used to be known simply as “vocational education." But the skills learned there are applicable to all jobs, whether college is part of the equation or not.

You might not think of it this way, but truck driving is a career where you help people. Or, at least, that is the way that Akia Lee looks at it. She drives a truck for Waste Management in Kansas City, Missouri.

How can educators help their students with disabilities find meaningful jobs once they graduate? A teacher follows up with her former student.

It's not just the Kansas City metro that needs new nurses, it's also the rest of the nation. New positions, as well as ones left by retiring nurses, are expected to increase as the U.S. population ages. Summit Tech's Professional Nursing Program wants to get ahead of this skills gap and aims to prepare high schoolers for potential careers in the medical field.

Web development is a job where you can earn between $50,000 and $60,000 starting out in the Kansas City area. People in the field say they, and many of their peers, have little to no college experience. A degree is not required. Certifications are available that help you land that first job, then it is up to the employee to stay current in an ever-changing field.

If you are one of those people who is always taking things apart and putting them back together, or building things out of scrap wood, perhaps the construction trades are for you. With just a high school degree, or its equivalent, you can embark on a career that can be rewarding.

We asked high school students questions about the workforce at a Hire KC Youth event here in Kansas City, Missouri. Hire KC connects students to work experiences and internship opportunities in the Kansas City region. Here's what they had to say.

The Kansas City Construction Career Academy is a partnership between MCC, North KC Schools, and JE Dunn Construction that shows students career pathways through disciplines in the skilled trades.

The quick-takes from Kansas City-area teachers, featured in the video above, indicate that these classroom leaders have done some learning of their own when it comes to preparing their students for the world of work. The upshot is that they see workforce prep as more than just teaching the basics.

"I've been around welding my entire life, and it's still magic," said Gary Pommier, a welding instructor at the Advanced Technical Center in the Olathe, Kansas, school district. There are more than 600,000 welding jobs available around the country, according officials with the Olathe program. And, Pommier said, these are jobs that begin and end in the U.S. You can't really outsource a bridge overseas and bring it over, Pommier noted.

The school district in Independence, Missouri, has reconfigured the high school experience for its students by creating an academy model with areas of focus based on workforce indicators in the Kansas City area. There are different pathways within the five academies that operate like majors in college.

Holland 1916 is a North Kansas City, Missouri, manufacturing company with a history that dates back to the earliest years of the 20th century. But it has not shied away from a new approach to recruiting employees and preparing the workforce of tomorrow.

In this series, we've talked about skilled labor, workforce development and college and career readiness, but this video touches on the question: How much is too much?

This introductory piece kicks off a six-part video series that will examine career and tech education in the Kansas City region. One of the key themes will be the push and pull between making schools mere conduits for employers versus institutions that turn out solid, informed citizens. Or, can they be both?

A four-year college degree is far from the only way to prepare for a good job. Apprenticeships are one of the oldest job-training programs, and they remain very relevant today in the Kansas City area and elsewhere.

One of the key phrases in workforce development nowadays is "stackable credentials." That basically means allowing students and workers pathways to complete their education in stages to further their careers and enhance their job possibilities.

How does Kansas City compare to other peer cities when it comes to jobs, our economy and growth? We're here to find out.