As far as vocational education goes no better example than Abe Lincoln.
Today I sat at Lincoln memorial in Washington DC and read a biography by
Landmark Children's books being sold there. He had no school education and he
became a successful lawyer and US president as well -despite having illiterate
and penniless parents in the back of beyond.
He had a different accent as well "Backwoodsmen accent". Ocourse, he always had
a book to read and newspapers etc and was famous for his physical prowess as
well which won him countless strong friends and admirers - Rail Splitter Abe -
as he was known even by his electorate. He could shoot straight at age eight.
Umesh
Dilip/Dil Deka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Is there anyone in Assamnet who is
directly involved in vocational training whether in Assam or anywhere else?
Please email me - we may have some serious business to talk about.
Dilip Deka
===================================================
A smart path that isn't 'college'
By Ben Brown
If we're so big on measuring results in education, isn't it time to get
serious about an approach that links knowledge and training with good-paying
jobs?
The time is ripe. Hardly a week goes by without another warning from a
business or education-reform group that too many of our students graduate
without the skills to compete in a global marketplace. And when the nation's
governors meet in February for a National Education Summit, high on the agenda
is a discussion of new strategies for helping students "build bridges between
high school, college and work."
The trouble is, if you try to bring vocational education into the discussion,
the first thing that enters many folks' minds are the guys in last-period shop
class, the ones who seemto know their way around an engine block, but not
algebra II. Fonzie in Happy Days, the 1970s sitcom set in the 1950s, was a
voc-ed guy cool, but not what parents hold up as a career role model.
Everybody knew Fonzie wasn't headed to college. And college is the one sure
path to the good life, right?
A skewed view of college
Well, yes and no. Yes, if you're willing to morph your concept of college to
include other post-secondary educational opportunities, from community colleges
to tech schools to professional- certification and workplace-training programs.
Occupational certification has increased by 50% during the past decade,
according to a recent study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher
Education.
No, if you're talking about only four-year institutions, where a third of
students don't qualify for degrees in six years.
"The last thing we need is another college dropout, saddled with student
loans and looking for a job without a marketable skill," says Gerry Hogan, a
volunteer advocate for vocational education and the chairman of Endurance
Business Media.
Clide Cassity, director of Pinellas Technical Education Centers in Florida,
adds, "Yet somehow we've gotten ourselves in the situation where we believe
that college is all that counts, that nothing else matters."
Even though good jobs increasingly require what used to be college-level
training, most still don't demand four-year degrees. Of the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics' estimates of the fastest-growing occupations between 2002
and 2012, the top 10 don't require bachelor's degrees. And many non-degree
occupations crying out for workers are career fields with salaries that can
support healthy families provided employees have higher level skills.
Kay Martin, CEO of the Francis Tuttle Oklahoma Technology Center in Oklahoma
City, says students who graduate in Tuttle's automotive program "after a few
years can earn $100,000." And there are similar career opportunities in health
technology, the construction trades and public safety.
In an era of outsourcing, here's more good news: These high-skill jobs aren't
going anywhere. You're not going to call someone in India to fix your car or
your plumbing. And if your house is on fire in Ohio, help is not coming from
Mexico.
A' real-world' advantage
Career and technical education the term voc-ed pros have adopted to avoid
the Fonzie factor has the advantage of relevance. For many students,
"academics suddenly make sense," says Robin White, president of the Great Oaks
Institute of Technology and Career Development in Cincinnati. "Geometry makes
more sense in construction technology than just drawing circles and squares on
paper." And the best programs can tout real-world accountability.
Tom Applegate, executive dean of Austin Community College, says, "All our
programs are labor-market driven. If employers don't want our grads, we don't
want the program."
In Florida, Cassity has lines at both ends of some Pinellas Tech programs:
Students wait for class slots, and companies wait to hire them. Two-thirds of
Pinellas Tech students complete requirements for professional certification or
state licensing, and 82% end up employed in their field of study.
So what's not to like about voc-ed? "It's the high schools that have run
amok," says Phyllis Hudecki, executive director of the Oklahoma Business and
Education Council, a non-profit education advocacy group. Even its defenders
acknowledge that, in the past, voc-ed has been used "as an avoidance mechanism
for kids who couldn't do academic work," Hudecki says. "And that's still out
there. I want to make sure students are really learning, and then turn them
loose" in voc-ed tracks.
Approaches such as the Southern Regional Education Board's "High Schools That
Work" project have proved that integrating vocational education with academic
courses can accelerate achievement at the high school level. The trick is
combining a no-compromise academic program with vocational education that
matches students with business mentors and that guarantees them career and
academic counseling. That may be tough for stressed-out high schools, but it's
doable.
Easier to model are proven post-secondary programs such as Cassity's in
Florida and Applegate's in Texas. They fight for funding, yet they have track
records business leaders and legislators should admire. So why not reward them
for delivering what the market needs?
The demand for trained and retrained workers is only going to increase,
perhaps in unexpected ways.
"Our fastest-growing group of students by percentage," Applegate says, "is
those with master's degrees."
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Umesh Sharma
Washington D.C.
1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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