Changing times in employment need change in message in the schools
JANESVILLE — More students would stay in high school and local manufacturers would have a better pool of prospective employees if area school districts introduced students to the values of technical education at a younger age, a Blackhawk Technical College vice president said.
“We need to do a much better job in the middle schools. I happen to think we’d have lower dropout rates if there was more of a technical/career emphasis at that age,” said Sharon Kennedy, vice president of learning at Blackhawk Technical College.
“We’ve got to change the message that technical school is less rigorous, that it’s the place for people who are not as cognitively successful as others,” she said.
Jim Morgan, president of the WMC Foundation, agrees that educators, parents and the media still cling to the misguided notion that manufacturing is dirty, dark and dangerous.
WMC Foundation recently conducted statewide listening sessions on the so-called skills gap.
“What seems to be missing in the current system is a broad understanding by today’s students of the jobs available,” Morgan wrote in a recent WMC column. “They simply cannot select an occupation that they don’t know exists.”
Today’s students, he said, don’t know what a welder or CNC operator does. They’ve never seen the inside of a modern-day, advanced manufacturing facility, and they don’t have accurate job data and salary information, he said.
Morgan said he understands the frustrations of Wisconsin manufacturers who say they can’t get the qualified employees they need to climb out of the economic downturn.
Employers, however, must shoulder part of the burden for talking up a changing manufacturing sector that offers plenty of family-supporting jobs, Morgan said.
‘A full understanding’
Morgan said 30 percent of the future jobs in Wisconsin would require a bachelor’s degree, which means 70 percent will not. Of the latter, the vast majority will require technical education beyond high school.
“If every 16-year-old and their parents have all of this information and a full understanding and open mind to all occupations available, we will work through this shortage,” he said.
Morgan said that requires a different definition of success, perhaps one in which children are healthy and happy, doing something they love and living comfortably.
The age-old definition, at least in terms of education, is that a master’s degree is better than a bachelor’s degree, which is better than a technical degree, which is better than work experience, he said.
“The workplace is not that linear and easily defined,” Morgan said. “Right now, there are shortages of engineers, welders, CNC operators, machinists and masons. Some of those require work experience, some apprenticeships, some technical degrees, some fouryear degrees or more.
“Let’s make sure everyone knows the market, because the market will drive us to success.”
‘More interaction’
A recent survey of 2,500 Rock County high school students shows only a handful had an interest in a career in manufacturing.
Rock County 5.0, in collaboration with a subcommittee of the Leadership Development Academy and the Stateline Career and Technical Education Academy, conducted the survey to learn how students form career aspirations, what those aspirations are and whether the students plan to go on to school, enter the military or join the workforce.
More than 2,500 students responded to the survey, which found:
Sixty percent plan to go to a four-year college or university, while 19 percent plan to pursue a technical or associate degree.
Of those thinking about technical careers, just 2.1 percent indicated an interest in manufacturing.
The majority of kids start thinking about careers in middle school.
Most want more information on careers.
Seventy percent said they had no exposure to a class, program, internship or co-op program that would prepare them for their chosen career field.
James Otterstein, Rock County’s economic development director, said the survey results will not gather dust. Instead, they will be used to marry the common interests of education and industry.
“The idea is to match career information to what’s actually happening in the marketplace,” he said. “I think one thing that c o m e s through loud and clear is that there’s a definite need for career counselors that match skill sets with interests and the market.”
“We need more interaction between the business community and education, and we’re not talking about one-day job fairs.”
Later this week, local manufacturer United Alloy will launch an internship for local welding students.
Aug 28, 2012 at 1:04 a.m.
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Everyone says, "Why don't we make anything anymore?"
Well, it can't be made in America if our next generation can not operate machinery or work in a factory environment (not a GM environment) or do simple math without a calculator. Just what I am seeing where I work. You might get dirty, you might not have air conditioning, you might be sweaty and tired and not have a smart phone for 8 to 10 hours. Peace
Aug 27, 2012 at 6:34 p.m.
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Lar80: I certainly don't dispute that costs went out of skew in the automotive industry specifically (although the failures to see larger trends were at the executive level - the Japanese were not caught surprised by the quick shift towards fuel economy) - but that's a single industry, and not the norm across all manufacturing. It's not that I don't realize or appreciate the parameters of our current economic system - unfortunately, the theory of greed economics which causes outsourcing at the first sign of cost savings simply pushes American wages down to that of the lowest wage countries, which has a cascading effect across the rest of the economy - it's death by a thousand paper cuts. Same with competition for low state taxation - it's all a race to the bottom that ends up burdening the dwindling middle class with the costs of a Government that both parties agree must exist... it's truly unfortunate that the middle class lacks any actual political influence these days. Thanks to free-trade globalization, a corrupt political system, a corrupt finance system, and a corrupt system of corporate governance, there aren't any easy answers.
Aug 27, 2012 at 11:17 a.m.
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I would love the WMC and companies to help finace this initiative. Do they want to help shoulder the load? Taxpayers would appreciate that.
Aug 27, 2012 at 7:33 a.m.
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ReasonableIntellectual
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"the nature of boom and bust economic cycles and corporate greed destroys families." ???
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We could just as easily say that the UAW and IAM and their insistance that unskilled labor get 70-90K with benefits, education and retirement destroyed families. (union greed)
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We can also rail that businesses/manufacturers that want more skill need to offer more money... This is true to an extent.. But it's limited.
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If worker salaries are driven too high, outsourcing becomes viable. This is also true with the state tax system.
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Let's do try to be reasonable intellectuals and realize that:
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High schools are not turning out grads who are proficient in regular arithmitic and comminications and it is the fault of the PARENTS every bit as much as it is the schools.
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Industry needs to pay more than taxes to get what they want.. They need to pony up with things like the "Advanced Manufacturing Center" or shut their pie holes.
Aug 27, 2012 at 7:24 a.m.
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Our school guidance councelors should be promoting technical education rather than college. They rarely even mention it to the "smart" students. Shouldn't our most brilliant students be steered towards technical careere. I see too many wedding announcements with the bride or groom graduating with a college degree and working at a lower paying field.
Aug 26, 2012 at 9:56 p.m.
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It's possible that kids aren't interested in manufacturing because they've seen first hand how the nature of boom and bust economic cycles and corporate greed destroys families. How can you plan on raising children or owning a house if you know that you're one economic shift or greedy CEO away from being laid off or outsourced? Kids may not be as clueless as you assume... businesses may be simply reaping the seeds they've sown.
Aug 26, 2012 at 9 p.m.
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Schools can do this, but it is not something that will just happen for free. Technical education of the sort necessary for job training is an expensive prospect, and are our ever-present tea party members willing to pony up the extra few hundred dollars per year in tax money to pay for such programs? Just the equipment purchases would be in the millions of dollars, you know. Next we'd have to hire qualified teachers. "An indictment of public education"? Not really. More like an indictment of the public being unwilling to pay for the education they want their young people to receive.
Aug 26, 2012 at 8:22 p.m.
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Schools are not a career training center. They don't make welders, accountants, carpenters, whatever. Schools are a preparedness center. They get kids ready for the next step in their life. As hard as schools work there will always be kids that fail. With that being said, the few that can't read a ruler are few and far between.
Additionally, what right does United Alloy have in telling a school what they should be doing? Because they are a taxpayer? So am I! So can I go in there and start telling the schools what and how to teach?
If you want to attract the best, be the best. Part of it is a good wage. Part of it is being a good employer (I don't know one way or another about United Alloy). Part of it is their image/reputation.
Don't pass the blame when you can't find good workers. Do something about it. Make good welders. Just like paying workers more, that would probably cost too much for them. When you're only reaching for low hanging fruit that is all you will get.
Aug 26, 2012 at 8:04 p.m.
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This story is yet another indictment of the public school education system. Instead of offering Chinese to attract students with school choice, why not concentrate on the basics. Turn out grads that can calculate without a calculator, communicate clearly in English both verbally and in writing and can find Wisconsin on a map. Is that too hard for our public schools to achieve? Apparently, up until now it has been.
Aug 26, 2012 at 7:09 p.m.
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Talk to the kids who grew up on farms. We know how to measure and fix and make stuff. Unfortunately, most kids now are lost without their "smart" phone. There is no substitute for hands on learning. Peace.
Aug 26, 2012 at 5:59 p.m.
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Unfortunately, in our community, we have mostly focused our conversation for the last several years on the loss of manufacturing in Janesville. Students hear that, see the unreliable sustainability in manufacturing jobs and look elsewhere. Many are looking for to be paid more than these companies are willing to pay based on the level of expertise they expect.
Aug 26, 2012 at 5:35 p.m.
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Good message, 30 years late.
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