Career ed: Trying to change the way we look at education

26 Feb, 2011 Learning Today Career Career Ed

Victor Cristales/Reporter-News Miku Takamatsu, a truck driving student at Action Career Training, conducts a pre-trip inspection.

Ever try to put a square peg into a round hole?

That’s right, it just doesn’t fit.

Some educational experts are saying the same thing about how many high school graduates in the United States are pushed toward attending four-year colleges and universities, when instead a high percentage of those students would be better off learning a trade or job skill.

Dixon Bailey, vice president of marketing and corporate relations at Texas State Technical College of West Texas, said changing how we look at education is TSTC’s vision of the future.

“In the future, most jobs in the United States won’t require a college degree,” Bailey said. “We have to change the culture of how we look at education.”

Bailey explained that in the coming decade, many employers will be looking for employees with certified training in their area of expertise.

The need for a liberal arts-based education will have less value in much of the marketplace.

“There will always be a need for higher education,” Bailey said. “We will always need doctors, lawyers and other professionals.”

Bailey pointed out that today, only about 30 percent of high school graduates go to traditional four-year college. That means that 70 percent are looking for alternative methods of receiving education and training.

“What we’re trying to do is put people into jobs,” he said. “Look at the fastest growing jobs and they don’t require a degree and some just require an associate degree. What we as a culture think of as success and what is reality are different things.”

Bailey said TSTC officials noted that “undecided” was the largest category of new students at TSTC each year.

The college came up with the plan of slowing down the system and allowing new students to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives and the best pathway to reach that goal.

They call it “Smart Start.” It allows entering students to pay $100 for the first semester.

“We slow down the process. Students go to program fairs, they take a course looking at 21st century learning that lets them understand how to learn and be successful,” Bailey explained. “It just lets you get the chance to slow down that first semester and think about those things.”

Bailey said it isn’t uncommon for some new students to get into school, get frustrated with what they’re doing, then leave school with failing marks in their classes and owing money.

The point of the Smart Start program is to eliminate that kind of action and let students figure out what they want to do.

Bailey said a student came to TSTC from California with an interest in the wind industry.

After a bit of exploring his options, the student decided he liked digital imaging better and changed his major.

Since the typical student at the Abilene campus of TSTC is about 27 years old, the campus has been reformulated to night and online classes to meet student needs.

The college also is learning that older students have a good idea of what they want to do with their lives.

“They know the reality in the world,” he said. “They talk to people they know who make a good living. They’re already able to support their families and are now looking for a career.”

He also said he sees firsthand how much the businesses that hire those from TSTC value the education and training students receive.

“I’m amazed that places like Intel are paying signing bonuses when hiring people with one year of school,” he said.

Bailey said TSTC is continuing to grow and facing a juggling act with the way education funding is tight in the state.

Bailey believes legislators have liked what they’ve heard from TSTC officials in Austin in recent weeks as the Legislature has worked on a budget.

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