Wednesday, June 27, 2012

POTUS on Voc Ed

POTUS gets it wrong and right at the same time.  At a vocational school in Iowa, POTUS announced the funding of a billion dollars for post-secondary vocational programs, great news, but he was doing it at a community college, the funding needs to go in at a much lower level.  The magic age for our youth is about 16, this is when they lose interest in academics and need direction, not after graduating from HS.  Lets get it right.

The world on Vocational Education

Been doing a little research on vocational programs around the world.  Here are some interesting links:


Germany supports education
Italian University in English
Polish educational system
Qatar educational system
Singapore education
The Nation looks at vocational education programs in US

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

When I was growing up, I had the opportunity to travel the world with my father who was an Army officer.  While in Germany in the 1960s I was exposed to their education system and was interested in how they channel their students post-elementary school into professional or technical schools for their high school educations.  This provided Germany with a steady supply of both professional and technically trained individuals for their growing industries.  Not only were they trained in most technical areas, but they were also bilingual from an early age.  We could learn from these systems instead of turning out unskilled workers from our high schools.  This is the foundation of having an industrialized society, skilled workers to replace those retiring into good paying jobs.
Where do we get most of them now?  The Military!  Something needs to change.