Comment to editorial
John(Comment to editorial in ISA NorCal Transmitter 2/07)
I agree wholeheartedly; But I don’t think the kids today are shunning the profession. I believe it is because of a lack of vocational/technical training available (you are correct in that government, especially school districts, don’t place a high value on technical training). Basic skills once learned in “shop class” are no longer being taught (remember shop class, a relic of the ancient past). Ask any high-school kid to read a tape measure…. (lots of luck).
We are going to reap what is being sowed. I have been in I&C all of my life and have been teaching technical skills and workforce education the past fifteen years.. (I was recently “non-reassigned” at the local community college). It appears they (the educational establishment) are really more comfortable with “soft-skills”…lord knows we need more liberal arts majors (want fries with that) at $25,000/year. But that is what “higher education” knows… and they are not going to change (with enrollments increasing… why should they, they have a new crop of students each year).
On-line/distance learning may help. Coupled with a good apprenticeship program (whoops… we killed the unions also didn’t we)…. Maybe something can be salvaged.
No….. until there is a network of Technical Colleges in place, ran & staffed by people who have been “in the trenches” (not “professional educators”)…. There will be a continuing shortage of qualified staff to fill technical positions.
God help us all.
Charles L Dickinson
Dickinson & Associates: Industrial Automation & Control
Reno NV
posted by cl @ 8:15 PM
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