KTEC: Time right for new campus

Over the past several years through my involvement with the Workforce Development Task Force of Kootenai County, local Chambers of Commerce, the regional Workforce Innovations Now project, and my current position at the Coeur d'Alene Department of Labor, I have continuously heard from local business and industry that there is concern our youth are not offered enough opportunities to successfully prepare them for the workforce. Many individuals have stated that some students lack exposure to various careers, lack work-readiness skills, or they just don't understand how to apply their education and therefore become disengaged. Events and programs, such as Hard Hats, Hammers and Hot Dogs, and the School-To-Registered-Apprenticeship Program (STRAP), help with exposure to the manufacturing and construction industries; however, we have an even better opportunity coming up in our community to address those concerns more effectively.

The Kootenai Technical Education Center (KTEC) is a new professional technical high school that is proposed to be built on the Rathdrum prairie with a projected opening of the fall of 2013. The Idaho Department of Labor is in full support of this effort.

We already have several successful professional technical high schools in our own state, and many throughout the country, that are excellent models of how we would like KTEC to function. What better way is there to teach students about the careers that require technical skills than to provide hands-on opportunities that allow them to apply their education and connect them with local employers whom will provide real work experience and a potential full-time job upon graduation.

You may ask yourself, "why now?," but if not now, then when? Current economic conditions will allow for reduced construction costs. In addition, many private sector businesses have significantly helped reduce the overall cost by purchasing half of the 20 acres of land, dedicated specifically for KTEC, while the other half was graciously donated by the Meyer family. Many of those same businesses have agreed to help obtain some of the necessary equipment, again, reducing the overall cost.

The students deserve to have more choices offered to them, and it is becoming more important than ever to train them for the careers that are so vital to our region and state. Please vote on Aug. 24!

More information can be found at www.ktechigh.org.

VICKI ISAKSON

Idaho Department

of Labor