Editorial Viewpoint
Closing the skills gap by building educational bridges
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. So is a trainable worker, particularly in the Massachusetts labor market today.
Back in the 1960s, we acted as if we had people to burn. Baby boomers clogged four-year colleges, and the cultural and economic gulf between four-year education and two-year associate degree-granting institutions was wide. It was a class divide that was neither fair, nor pretty. For many talented baby-boom students, a four-year degree was not a viable entry into post-secondary education, for either social or economic reasons. But little proactive effort was made to help that group develop a career ladder beyond the Associate’s Degree - they were on their own.
Student attrition and failure of small business to thrive were not concerns of most employers at the time, either. The country was going from boom into recession at the cusp of the 1970s, and employers didn’t have the jobs and could do without the competition from more entrepreneurs. Students talented enough in emerging business sectors, such as computer technology, enjoyed a career trajectory that rewarded them richly during the so-called Massachusetts Miracle. Then the upheavals in the information technology sector left many workers as badly off at the end of the 1980s as Rust Belt laborers whose plants had shut down.
So, here we are today, in a world in which it is increasingly difficult to just "work your way up" without education. Both community colleges and four-year institutions have come to see the value of making the intervention effort to retain students, giving them the support they need to succeed, not only in the curriculum but in the outside world as well. More of these post-secondary institutions are seeing the value of teaching portable skills, such as entrepreneurship and basic business practices.
That’s why we welcome the outreach we see beginning to happen between public school systems, community colleges and four year schools and employers. The new Worcester Technical High School has just inked a three-part pact with the state and two unions in pipefitting and sheet metal work to create 16 pre-apprentice and apprenticeship programs for students who will be able to enter the lucrative HVAC field. Quinsigamond Community College has submitted a partnership proposal to the National Science Foundation for another three-part initiative with Worcester Tech and regional manufacturers, to inform young people of the potential career paths in manufacturing. WPI’s long-standing Venture Forum is an open invitation to students to mix with emerging entrepreneurs to learn from those before them, not only how to develop the next new idea, but how to finance it. Clark University’s Entrepreneurs in Residence progam brings in experts from many disciplines to act as mentors for Clark students. These are just a few of the initiatives that are showing up in our schools - and it is encouraging to see even more programs like these on the drawing boards across the region. All this is a long, long way from the "Business Courses" of the past, which didn’t necessarily engage the interest of the students who would need them the most.
If we are to develop the workforce of the future, we not only have to start ‘em young - we have to give them hope and opportunity. Helping young people lay out a clear path for the future isn’t the same thing as mapping their lives for them. It’s all about informed choices, and we think that’s the most valuable lesson our schools can offer.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments