The Homa Files

Excerpted from the WSJ:

Big U.S. employers, worried about replacing retiring baby boomers, are … growing bolder about telling educators how to run their business.

Several initiatives have focused on manufacturing and engineering, fields where technical know-how and math and science skills are needed and where companies worry about recruiting new talent.

The National Association of Manufacturers is leading a drive, partly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to establish standardized curricula at community colleges across the U.S. with the goal of preparing students to qualify for certification in industrial skills ranging from welding to cutting metal and plastics.

The association … said bright students should be encouraged to consider alternatives that lead directly to jobs.

“We need to move aggressively to competency-based education” based on mastery of skills  … rather than on an accumulation of credit hours.

Much of the emphasis is on community colleges and vocational schools because they are affordable and can quickly turn out job candidates.

Employers increasingly are asking community colleges to create custom training programs for specific jobs.

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This entry was posted on June 10, 2011 at 6:22 am and is filed under Education - Academics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.