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BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: DAILY BRIEFING: SPECIAL REPORT | |||||||||||||||||
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Voc-Ed: Beyond Hairdressers and Wrench-Spinners High-tech companies hungry for skilled workers look to -- and work with -- vocational schools Welcome to vocational education, 21st-century-style. Once considered a backwater for beauticians-in-training and auto-shop workers, technical education has experienced a revolution as the New Economy has increased the demand for highly skilled workers. Businesses, facing a growing shortage of qualified technical workers, increasingly are turning to public vocational-education programs to fill the gap. The result is close partnerships between businesses and schools in communities across the country. Companies are donating equipment, training public-school instructors, and providing specialized curriculums to help schools prepare workers in everything from computer technology to telecommunications to pipeline hydraulics. In many cases, the programs certify graduates for specific jobs.
Companies often look to the vocational-education system to train future workers because they don't have the infrastructure to do so. "We didn't have trained instructors, so rather than try to reinvent the wheel, we went to Tulsa Tech," says Jim Solomon, president of Sabre International Inc., an Oklahoma company based that sells and leases heavy equipment to pipeline contractors. WHITE-COLLAR PAY. Solomon approached the publicly funded Tulsa Technology Center a year ago when he faced a shortage of mechanics and welders to do electrical and hydraulic installations. Now, Tulsa Tech instructors visit the company's plant to train lower-skilled employees. "With a high-school degree and this kind of vocational training, these workers are in big demand," says Solomon. He adds that some of his mechanics and welders earn more than $60,000 a year with overtime -- and pull down more than some of his white-collar workers. Such relationships have transformed vocational-education systems. Gene Callahan, superintendent of Tulsa Tech, which covers 14 public-school districts in the area, says 10 years ago there was little direct involvement by companies. "There has been a tremendous change in how we deliver instruction," he says. A decade ago, for instance, there were no summer internships or mentoring programs at companies. Nor were employers knocking on his door for help. By contrast, starting this fall, Tulsa Tech will help train dozens of workers to fill telecommunications jobs at MCI WorldCom. The company is training Tulsa Tech's instructors to teach students how to become circuitry designers and installation technicians, according to Thomas Pipal, director, corporate training and development at MCI WorldCom. The program began several years ago at another Oklahoma voc-ed facility. Pipal says he has spoken with other public vocational-education programs in the state to prod them to turn out 500 qualified technicians a year. He hopes to duplicate the program nationwide. Pipal says that given how quickly technology changes and the strong demand for high-tech workers, "it's much more practical to go to a vo-tech school. You can get them to put something together in a matter of weeks or months." GET 'EM YOUNG. Indeed, technology companies are at the forefront of the voc-ed boom -- and some are even going directly to high schools. Take Cisco Systems Inc. With the Internet booming, the San Jose (Calif.) company found that buyers of its Web servers were facing a severe shortage of workers qualified to design, build, and maintain computer networks. So two years ago, it started the Cisco Networking Academy program. Now up to 2,000 academies in every state, the program which teaches Internet literacy and networking. Cisco hopes to create 4,000 academies worldwide by next August. More than 20,000 students are currently enrolled for 280 hours of instruction over two years. The first 2,000 graduated this year.
The goal of the academies is to motivate students to work in technology-related fields and to give them the skills to get entry-level work in computer networking. The students often get part of their training by working on their school's computer networks. After passing the course work, which is taught by Cisco-trained school teachers, the students can take the exam to become certified to work on Cisco systems. And the students can take their new education anywhere they want. Cisco estimates that starting salaries for such employees range between $35,000 and $45,000. Says Cisco Chairman John P. Morgridge: "Network administrators are essential to the success of almost all businesses, academic institutions, and government. Yet most companies simply can't find people with the right skills to meet the demand. That's why it's so important that today's students get the skills needed for jobs of the 21st century." Despite the enthusiasm for such an approach, Lovejoy says that many public- school systems don't spend enough money on their vocational-education systems. Because of demands to raise reading and math scores, he adds, states are shifting resources to programs that help them meet academic standards. Technical training sometimes gets short shrift, he says. According to the federally funded National Assessment of Vocational Education, the number of high-school voc-ed programs was halved between 1980 and 1994, though Lovejoy believes that the next assessment, scheduled for next year, will show a leveling off. "Sometimes programs are being closed because they are being underfunded or neglected," Lovejoy adds. "We can't get the policymakers to make the investments." He says about 100 companies, including Cisco, joined in a special partnership three years to raise policymakers' awareness. With so many companies in dire need of technicians, it could be just a matter of time before the politicians realize that vocational education will require as much attention as august academia. By Susan Garland in Washington
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