Why KTEC is key to future

KTEC is an achievement of national significance that transcends political affiliation. The "start and stop" approach of federal initiatives in the area of career and technical education have deeply undermined our nation's competitiveness.

Many people are surprised to learn that the U.S. Department of Education during the eight years of the recent Bush administration opposed any form of career and technical education in the secondary schools. KTEC helps mark the end of that experiment.

KTEC also is central to our area's long-term goal of economic diversification as demonstrated in the ongoing achievements of Jobs Plus. Achieving the KTEC project is also important because as a society and as educators we have forgotten how central hands-on learning with tools and materials is to real learning. This is part of the reason why we underutilize apprenticeship learning in our nation. Whatever a student's objectives, and however far the individual chooses to walk along the educational "on-ramp," economic well-being is always a central goal.

To illustrate the importance of hands on learning, there is currently a great deal of concern in education about the lack of student participation in STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math). Micron Corporation has recently funded the University of Idaho to study why American students are avoiding these professions. There is evidence that the lack of hands-on experience may be a key factor to presenting math and sciences in understandable terms. Engineering professors will tell you the best engineering students are often farm kids, because they are familiar with tools and materials. Hands-on learning will be central to KTEC.

On the national level, many states have defined work-readiness skills as equally important to college readiness skills. This has taken the form of the National Career Readiness Certificate (www.act.org/certificate), which links school-based learning to skills used in the workplace. Our nation has an educational system with infinite second chance re-entry points. This feature is unique in the world. The power to earn must, however, be an outcome of the time spent in education.

During the 1990s we were told the U.S. was becoming a "knowledge economy" and we would all have knowledge jobs. Unfortunately, those were the first jobs to be outsourced to Asia. KTEC will train in skills that are not so readily outsourced and will help attract and support our economy.

College is an expensive career exploration strategy for both students and taxpayers. An educational system that is tightly coordinated so as to eliminate duplication and ensure employability of participants is more important than ever. A major recent study of American college and university education by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce made a crucial and critical analysis.

"Colleges need to streamline their programs so they emphasize employability," said Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown Center. Carnevale went on to say the key psychological change that is needed is to move away from the old model, where you go to college and then go out and find a job, to one in which the college years are explicitly for preparing for an occupation.

We have to take the long view. Our competitors in China are expert at taking the long view. They look at winning in multi-generational business strategies. We cannot do less.

The long view requires educational diversity and not simply a "one size fits all - college for everyone" strategy. Going to college increasingly means engaging in computer-based learning, and not parking a car and sitting in a classroom. Economies of scale are emerging in higher education and are fully congruent with regional college and university accreditation agencies. We should take advantage of proven efficiencies at every turn.

As the Georgetown study indicates, the right path is to link education to the economic life of the individual and the community. To do less is not only a colossal waste of money, but a threat to our nation's future.

Dr. Robert Ketchum is Chief Executive Manager of The Ketchum Group.