Letter to RGJ.com/Business re: workforce development
Denny………You hit the nail right on the head (Building a quality workforce takes a whole community). Of course this has been the topic of conversation ever since I moved here 13 years ago! “A team of technical and policy experts have been working to launch a plan”… is something I have heard more than once.
I do believe “The role of higher education and business is to teach specific job skills." There are many qualified and skilled tradesmen and businessmen who have attempted to work with the local Community College, but if they are not “academics”, they are quickly dismissed (TMCC is a master at forming committees to study the problem; those in the committee who have ideas that don’t fit within the “semester structure” of academia are ignored.
I fear you will be throwing good money down the rabbit hole if you think the current administration of TMCC will be teaching anything except “soft-skills” (there are some notable exceptions, but these successes were the result of hard work long before the current administration took over). No… Community College’s today are far from the agricultural/vocational trade school of years back. They are all scrambling to hire as many PhD’s as possible and (the holy grail) offer 4 year degrees.
While I hate to see another layer of educational bureaucracy, this state needs a system of technical colleges which are focused on actually training students to fill high-tech high-wage jobs. Having academics administering vocational/technical education just is not working!
posted by cl @ 8:29 PM
1 Comments:
Dear Business reader:
This is to confirm that we have received your comments on Monday's Industry
Vista column.
Please e-mail back your address and town for confirmation and then your
views should appear in this coming Monday's Business section.
Thank you for your submission.
------------------------------------
Edward H. Shur
Business/Operations Editor
Reno Gazette-Journal
Post a Comment
<< Home