County Schools Not Adequately Training For Jobs

[CMF Newsman]

County School Board Chairman Kenny Smith and several County Commission members said Thursday that the Hamilton County Schools are not adequately training students for jobs that will be offered at Volkswagen and Alstom.

Mr. Smith said, "We can do it, but we are not doing a good job right now."

He said potential VW workers are not being adequately trained in the county schools for the aptitude tests that will be required.

Mr. Smith said he continues to seek backing for a stronger vocational program in the county schools. He said, "I'm beginning to take the school administration don't support it."

www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_135860.asp

[LimitedRecourse]

Yeah...like the TEACHING positions.

[Tsavodiner]

Mr. Smith said he continues to seek backing for a stronger vocational program in the county schools.

You don't think the Lion King sees a little personal profit in this, since he TRAINS electricians, do you?

"THE LION KING SCHOOL OF SMALL APPLIANCE REPAIR"

[victoriasuzette]

Aren't we supposed to be preparing children for life, and giving them a good, well-balanced education in general, in our schools? Since when were we supposed to primarily educate them for 'a' specific job?

[Copperhead]

The whole idea of public education was to train workers, starting with the industrial revolution. Until recently, there hasn't been too much emphasis on being able to think and reason. The world economy and competition of the past twenty years, though, has changed the old paradigm from having "drones" to having employees who can think.

[blindsolitude]

Didn't the County schools do away with vocational schools or vocational classes at "traditional" high schools like 5 or so years ago? They decided it was best if everyone went through the college prep route. . . because obviously everyone is going to go to college. I thought I remember this happening. I'm not sure it if passed or not, but I remember there was a girl who was the at Ooltewah and was on the youth legislature or something like that with the county and was adamantly against making everyone go through college prep.

[RuneDeer]

I noticed a lot of high schools in Ga. and TN seem to incorporate the vocational track into the regular high schools. That's quite different from NY where I grew up -- the vocational kids were loaded onto a bus and sent far, far away to a grim-looking old school building where you couldn't see them, as if VE were something shameful. No matter how you slice it or spin it, or what part of the country, there is now a perception that VE kids are simply less intelligent or lower-class than kids who are on a college track. Many have realized that this attitude isn't helping anyone. It doesn't help the VE kids, because they go along doubting that they made the right choice and are stigmatized by too many others. It doesn't help the kids who are on the college track out of pure political correctness but who don't belong there due to lack of ability and will find this out once they start paying those high tuition bills while flunking out (see linked article).
www.theatlantic.com/doc/200806/college
We really need more people on the vocational track - in time, it could lead to a stronger manufacturing sector in this country. But it would take an enormous amount of work to reverse the trend of the last 40-50 years.

[victoriasuzette]

Well, I suppose I can see a place for a 'vocational track,' but I worry that doing so would lessen even more the level of education 'for life' that school children already suffer. It seems to me that the entire 'system' of education ~ both private and government schools (if they are allowed to continue) ~ needs a major overhaul, anyway.

[Copperhead]

I spoke with a friend yesterday who, until recently, was employed by Hamilton County schools. She stated that the county schools are considering adapting the German model of education to our schools. I find this interesting. We agreed that it would really shake up the schools.

I spent a summer in Germany and had the opportunity to speak with many young people. All children begin learning English in primary school (1st grade, I think). They are "tracked" to either technical/vocational or college-prep schools by the end of 5th grade. While in the middle-school years, all students in both types of schools are provided with the opportunity to learn another language (usually French) as well as algebra, etc. The college-prep, or Gymnasium, students have a curriculum which will often require a third foreign language. This means that most children can converse in English by age 11. They can speak French by age 14. The Gymnasium students will pick up their third language at about age 16.

The idea of putting students on different tracks by age 11 is a concept that would, indeed, shake things up around here. The idea of teaching a foreign language to all primary school students (and not just magnet school students) would also shake things up. The really big thing, though, would be understanding that while a vocational/technical student might not be best suited for college, these students are still capable of learning much.

We have continuously dumbed down our educational standards and have become one of the stupidest populations among the industrialized nations.

It's amusing that our local school board is finally admitting this.

[Deleted]

Ich hablo nicht français.

[Copperhead]

Lo siento.
Wie schade.

[LimitedRecourse]

Me chun nyea?

[Kordax]

Kenny Smith's vision & version of Voc Ed doesn't line up with the time-tested German model:

Two thirds of all adolescents in Germany enter into a course of vocational training after completing their compulsory school education. As this training is conducted at two places of learning, at vocational school and in a company, in Germany we call it the "dual system". The aim of the training, which usually lasts for three years, is for the students to receive basic general and vocational education and to acquire the skills of a qualified skilled worker.

The German vocational school system is highly differentiated and is broken down into a large number of school types (see below) and disciplines. It has been deliberately designed to be so permeable that graduates of vocational schools still have access to qualifications for polytechnic and university.

Currently apprentices in Germany can choose between 355 recognised apprenticeship careers that are assigned to 68 job groups. The disciplines taught in most vocational schools are commercial, clerical, domestic or agricultural. The young people learn in companies on two to three days, and at the vocational schools on up to two days per week. The companies, who have signed up to nationally standard codes of training, bear the costs of training. Companies in the private sector, the public service, medical practices, freelance professions and private households offer apprenticeships. Depending on the sector, after they have passed their exams the apprentices are given certification as a skilled worker, clerk or journeyman. The exams are taken in front of the relevant chambers, such as the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Chambers of the Free Professions or the Chamber of Skilled Crafts.

www.goethe.de/wis/sub/thm/ein/en21491.htm