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United Press International
Unfilled manufacturing jobs push students
toward trade schools
ByJessie Higgins
EVANSVILLE, Ind., Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Millions of unfilled U.S.
manufacturing jobs are pushing high school seniors to consider forgoing
traditional four-year universities and enrolling in trade schools
instead.
"People are starting to understand that maybe a traditional four-year
degree does not always translate into a career," said Cheryl Oldham,
vice president of education policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"There are great jobs that don't require that traditional path."
Many of those jobs are in manufacturing. They are skilled positions
that require specialized training -- and not a bachelor's degree.
Millions are opening around the country, and they're going unfilled.
Some 2.4 million manufacturing positions will remain vacant in the next
decade, according to estimates by the Manufacturing Institute in
Washington, D.C.
Faced with a shortage of skilled workers, companies and organizations
like the chamber are going on the offensive. They're reaching out to
young people, suggesting that they enroll in a trade school or
apprenticeship program.
"It is very much a relevant conversation taking place across the
country," Oldham said. "If we have people without jobs, and there are
open jobs, we have to ask ourselves, 'What are we doing to help young
people understand what the career opportunities are? And what are the
skills they need?'"
This is especially true in areas like the rural Midwest, where many
small economies are centered around manufacturing.
State data from one rural county in southern Indiana, for example,
shows that about 20 percent of the jobs require a bachelor's degree. By
contrast, about 65 percent ask for either a two year-degree or
certificate. About 45 percent of the jobs in Perry County, Ind., are in
advanced manufacturing.
"We show this data to our kids," said Jody French, the principal of
Perry Central High School in Leopold, Ind. "We want to prepare them for
a good quality of life and be successful."
Perry Central is one of a handful of U.S. high schools that have
embraced vocational training as a central part of the curriculum. The
school operates a student-run manufacturing company, and students are
encouraged to spend a semester doing an internship with a local
business.
"We do feel like we're really ahead of the curve," French said. "I'm
really fortunate to work for a school system that thinks outside of the
box and allows for these things to happen."
French began taking the school in this direction a few years ago, and
it's having an impact on the students.
After two years of learning about all the well-paid manufacturing jobs
in his community, Taylor James, a junior a Perry Central, abandoned his
goal of attending Purdue University and plans to instead enroll in a
local trade school to prepare for a career at Toyota.
"It was hard to get to that point," James said. "My mom and dad both
went to Purdue. My grandpa went to Purdue. My parents met at Purdue.
But I can make as much money doing this as someone with a four-year
degree, and I'll have no debt."
James plans to attend the two-year Career Advancement Partnership
program at Vincennes University in Jasper, Ind. The program partners
with local companies, and the students spend two days a week working at
those companies and three days in classes. In the end, James will earn
an associate's degree -- and a job.
Companies like Toyota are investing in these kinds of programs in
Indiana and other states where they have factories.
"With as many as 2.4 million jobs to fill in the next decade, we are
looking at a number of innovative ways to recruit talented people to
our team," Ashley Chatham, a spokeswoman for Toyota, said in an email.
Many of these efforts are just beginning. It represents a marked shift
in public opinion. Vocational education and trade schools largely fell
out of fashion in America in the early 1980s.
There were studies around that time that American students were
academically behind students in other developed nations. The education
system responded by transitioning high schools to be more academically
focused. At the same time, students were encouraged to go to college.
"That led to a decline in interest in trade schools that lasted well
into the 2000s," said Brian Jacob, a professor of education policy and
economics at the University of Michigan.
But the rising cost of traditional four-year degrees, an increasing
national aversion to student loan debt and the growing number of
unfilled manufacturing jobs means that students and institutions are
slowly adjusting their approach.
While trade schools are once again are in vogue, the impact of this
push to enroll students is unclear. Current data on trade school
enrollment is scant.
The U.S. Department of Education's Consolidated Annual Report shows a
gradual decline in the number of students enrolled in state-sponsored
Career and Technical Education programs. But data is available only
through 2014, and it does not track all trade schools or training
programs.
"One of the problems with getting accurate data is some trade schools
are accredited post-secondary institutions, but not all of them are, so
it's hard to track," said Martin Van Der Werf, the associate director
of editorial and post-secondary policy at Georgetown University's
Center on Education and the Workforce. "Anecdotally, I think there's
been a lot of interest in trade schools."
Read this and other articles at UPI
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