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Originally Posted by Hitman
I disagree. Community colleges and technical training at high school levels is where it's at. Gone are the days when high schools have "shop" classes. How many high schools are in any given region? Probably 50 or more for large metro areas. How many community colleges are in that same region? Probably four or five campuses. How many universities? One.
Workforce and job development are highly technical fields these days. The old manual lathes and mills you had in your high schools in the 70's, 80's etc our now home hobbyist equipment. It's all about automation, robotics and other high tech focus areas. CNC machining has made your high school shop Bridgeport a dinosaur. Can each high school really afford to own and operate a high tech CNC machine? No. That's why technical high schools and community colleges have stepped in to take that lead. They're better funded and can quickly adapt to changing workforce needs. Do you think the newest Ford factory needs someone that knows basic welding? Nope, that's all done by robots now. So you're search for a basic welding class is going to yield poor results as you found, that's not the skill an 18 year old needs. And if they do, their local union training center will provide it through their programs.
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Lots & lots of misinformation in this based on my first-hand knowledge. My son begins this Fall as an instructor for a local state community college where he & I have been advisors for. Most people do not realize that most colleges receive the vast part of their funding from grants. They really do not have the funding to quickly change as suggested. Changing of a curriculum requires funding from grants, and then generally requires a year or two for a curriculum to be implemented. All totaled, it can be 3-5 years for change to be implemented.
Several other misconceptions from above in the high school level. More often than not, because the high school vocational class and the college-level classes were not at capacity, the two were merged. This stems from the counselors and the parents pushing college participation for the students (-and not vocational trades). One other issue is the pass/fail ratio. The classes on both levels must be presented to the students where they academically pass. The instructor and the schools funding is largely based on this. Most students today are much better at academics than they are at lab work. Again, they lack brain-to-hand coordination and problem solving skills. So if 75% of the grade comes from a lab project, what I have seen and heard from the instructors is the kids fail. Way more than meets the eye on why the local High School curriculums were dropped.
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Originally Posted by mcgarrett
Wow, I thought this post was about Stipe camshafts!  |
It was, ...and the proper answer too the original question was made several times above. Now we are free to discuss other things. New socially accepted rules allow things to be discussed anywhere and everywhere!!
