Monday, September 29, 2014

Re: CA CC's to offer 4 year degrees

Re: CA CC's to offer 4 year degrees

(Sent to RGJ) 

One of the DUMBEST ideas ever...  Now every Community College will want to be a "little Harvard"..  And,   they'll only want to hire Ph.D's with absolutely NO practical experience.... and teach those great philosophical subjects that every employer is looking for (sic).
...  so they are going to play this game in CA (good for them... so progressive) but of course now NV will be screaming to do the same (they have already been screaming , ever since GBC way out in Elko was given the go-ahead)....  OK.... BUT,  in return, how about we get a COMPLETELY SEPARATE Technical/ Vocational  College System... (most CC's don't do a very good job of technical work-force education anyway).   A break-away would benefit both systems...  (trust me,  the CC's would love to get rid of "the dirty-fingernail bunch".
Let the CC's offer 4 year "academic" degrees and be mini-Universities,  and let the Technical College do what the CC's were originally designed for.....   and maybe we would finally get a "trained technical workforce" here in NV

posted by cl @ 7:11 PM 0 comments

Monday, September 15, 2014

Comment to Channel 2 & Channel 4 re: TMCC's new "Automation Technologies" program

"THE DEAN OF SCIENCES SAYS THIS PROGRAM WILL BE A PART OF THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE MANUFACTURING TRAINING IN THE RENO AREA
---- JIM NEW- TMCC DEAN OF TECHNICAL SCIENCES"...

Too bad someone didn't ask Jim about the $390,000 FISPE grant to set up the "Manufacturing Technologies" program 10 years ago,  and how the then Dean, Bill Verbeck, and the main IMT instructor (myself,   who had seven courses developed for the program,)  and the part-time Master Machinist were taken off the project after the check was cashed.  Contracts were not renewed...  equipment spec'd for the program never purchased.....where did that money go??

Sad the program as described in the grant never materialized (Bill Verbeck, Myself and Phil Johncock wrote that grant,  I know the scope of the project and it was a good start).  At the time, every  NV workforce development agency (and conferences) were saying NV was at a disadvantage because it did not have a "trained technical workforce".  Its been ten years... we still do not.  Why????? Sadly because TMCC really doesn't want to deal with "That dirty fingernail bunch".  They want to to be the "Little Harvard on the Truckee"  (they don't even maintain good relations with UNR,  trying to compete with them and whining about not being able to offer 4 year degrees instead of doing what they were chartered for... 

I also heard (but never followed up on)  TMCC got a big "alternative energy grant" awhile back.... Does anyone know what that grant money developed?

Years from now... I'll be adding this current "money down a dark hole story" to my blog.   

Thank You,
Charles L. Dickinson

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

posted by cl @ 7:28 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, September 09, 2014

5 BILLION Dollar MegaFactory

Well... we got it.  FIVE Billion dollar Tesla Megafactory......  (yeah,, that Billion with a B). 
6,000 employees (and I don't think that counts the construction crews).  Plus a new biofuels refinery AND a new Amazon warehouse....  all in the past month.  A LOT of folks will be moving here to take jobs (and a lot won't).  New Company in Gardnerville from the bay area...  only 1/4 of their employees are wiling to move with the factory (I guess jobs are plentiful in CA these days).
Biggest problem I see here (outside of home prices rising faster than the national debt).. Is getting all the new-hires up to speed to handle positions in a modern automated manufacturing facility (gee...  to bad TMCC gutted MY Industrial Maintenance Technology Program (oh yeah.. they "gutted" Dean Verbeck also,  the man with the foresight and intelligence to see that this type of program was sorely needed))....  A lot of short-sighted (non) planning....  lots of luck playing catch up... because we are going to STEAL those  Technical Students you think are going to flock to your door.  WE can do a better job... we've been doing it longer AND continuously...  all without the Govt. Grants, paperwork and all the bureaucratic red tape.
Revenge is a dish best served cold (they say)....

posted by cl @ 4:49 PM 0 comments