A large group of educators was in attendance in response to
the theme of “Educating for Innovation”
Attendees represented
Toledo Public
Oregon Public
Terra Technical College
University of Toledo
Bowling Green State University
Wood County Educational Service Center
Penta Career Center
Owens Community College
Brian Paskvan of Owens Community College led the discussion.
Elected to Board of Trustees:
Linda Stacy, University of Toledo – Universities
Tim Smith, Wood County Educational Center - K-12
Alternates:
Tom Dimitrew, Toledo Public Schools –K-12
Chuck Lehnert, University of Toledo
Main topic is the
funding that is available for technical and building trades education, and the
lack of students.
·
Community colleges report that industry is
requesting hundreds of welders, not five or 20. Industry and government are
supporting education in these fields with lots of incentive grants.
·
There was a shortage in the building trades 10
years ago and now it’s worse and it’s about to be much worse because many
skilled trades are retiring. It’s estimated that 30% of the supervisors in the
building trades are retiring soon.
·
Penta announced a $1.5 million robotics lab. Penta
is working on grants involving 65 partners on a project to help students 22 and
older earn high school diplomas. There are 60,000 people in Lucas County who
are over 22 and who don’t have a high school diploma. The project is Training
Track completion. Part of the project is to go further and get people a job
after they get a diploma.
·
Owens has $15 million grant for welding and
advanced manufacturing.
·
Toledo public schools has a $3.8 million grant
from the Department of Labor. Toledo Technical Academy will now start in 7th
grade. The goal is grow careers in the technical industry by getting students
interested at an early age.
·
Employers tell schools that they want people in
robotics, transportation/logistics, and higher technology like 3D printing.
Different kinds of
“graduation” criteria were discussed. Graduation types are Competency,
Completion, and Credential test. Stackable Certificates is also a trend.
·
Competency based education, not number of hours
in classroom is trend in higher ed. Questions arise about “what that diploma
would look like.” Would a 4-year university accept a transfer student who was a
great welder but hadn’t taken standard broad introductory classes?
·
Completion is another trend where some schools
are paid when students graduate not just when they attend. Is a community
college student complete when she transfers to a 4-year university?
·
Credential is completing a specific program:
10-week drafting course, or certificate program in welding. This is a corporate
preference. This is stackable certificates.
·
Community and 4- year colleges agree that they
need to collaborate aggressively to get people into the workforce quickly. They
noted that there are models for integrating K-12 as well.
·
Distance learning is a trend. Problems with it
include hardware failures and technology glitches that waste lots of time.
Brief discussion of
security at schools.
·
All agree that security at higher learning is
professional level. Terra is doing exercises with local EMS.
·
At some elementary schools they have talked
about arming the custodial staff. Concern about the amount of training a
custodian would have and the fear of accidents.
·
Cyber security is huge issue for school data.
Other thoughts
·
To get kids to sign up for technical education,
we need to appeal to the moms who are currently stuck on the value of the 4-
year degree. When skilled trades can pay well and also allow a person to run
their own business.
·
Europe has models for technical education and
journeyman training.
Action Item
·
An RFP for ODE grants is expected soon. There
will be three $1.3 mil grants available only for equipment. Important not to
duplicate equipment. (We don’t need 20 welding labs.) TMACOG is asked to follow up. TMACOG will survey
schools to see if there is interest in facilitating partnerships to apply for
the grants.
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