The above is the title of an article in today’s Daily Press, which is part one of a two-part series. The article lays out that many students – even graduates – are leaving high school unprepared for the workplace, forcing the companies to hire foreigners or forgo expansion plans.
Many recent high school graduates who apply for jobs at Colonna’s Shipyard in Norfolk can’t read a tape measure. They aren’t sure what to do with a wrench or a hammer. Their reading skills are weak, and many lack a good grasp of math and science.
[…]
As of early November, Colonna’s, which employs 390 people, had 73 openings.
Some of the reasons behind the problem:
- Many students aren’t exposed to the skilled trades as teens. (Is mandatory vocational training the answer?)
- Students are graduating without the math and science knowledge required by many businesses.
- Too many youths with the potential to work in the skilled trades are dropping out of school.
When more than 75% of the employers responding to a survey say that they had problems hiring employees, when 81% of businesses with positions not requiring a high school diploma can’t find qualified people to hire, we have a serious problem, folks.
And it’s not just Virginia. The problem is appearing nationwide, with potentially horrible results:
A report released this fall by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education notes that as baby boomers begin retiring nationwide, those replacing them will be less educated. It’s a shift that has the potential to lower personal incomes and decrease the country’s tax base over the next 15 years…
And this could be disastrous for the Virginia economy:
From 1980 to 2000, per capita personal income in Virginia grew by 47 percent. However, the public policy center calculated that the state’s personal income will grow by less than 1 percent over the next 14 years because of changing demographics and fewer people earning high school diplomas and college degrees.
There was a time when getting a good education was something that everyone strove for. It was the ticket out of the class to which you had been born. The emphasis on eduction was everywhere: home, school, church. I’m not sure when this all changed but it has, particularly here in Hampton Roads.
About 68 percent of Hampton Road students earned a high school diploma in 2005 compared with 77 percent of students statewide.
Those who do not take advantage of education do so at their own peril. We need to emphasize this at every opportunity.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Well, we wouldn’t want to crush their poor little egos by failing them, would we?
I do think that the US would be better off if it offered better vocational education. However, I don’t think it should come at the high school level. Education is about MUCH MORE than producing the next generation of worker bees.
I do tend to be suspicious when companies claim to be unable to find qualified workers here, and then must recruit foreign workers/move jobs. What they’re really saying is that they can’t find anyone to work for the wages they want to offer, and prefer to higher cheaper labour overseas. It’s a problem of supply, yes, but not quite the one they’re claiming.
Normally I’d agree with you MB on the suspicions but in the case of the companies in this story, I just don’t think it is the case. These are, for the most part, local companies (NN Shipbuilding is part of a larger conglomerate) and moving jobs is not an option.
There were a couple of companion stories (1, 2) that you may find of interest.
MB, the problem is that companies that try to pay their workers too much (or whose unions demand too much, such as Ford) find that other comapnies are selling similar products cheaper, and the more expensive company goes out of business.
“If it wasn’t for the Nips being so good at building ships
The yards would still be open on the Clyde.
But it can’t be much fun for them beneath the Rising Sun
With all their kids committing suicide.” -Roger Waters
The problem is that we are teaching kids to a test, not to think analytically, and we are not seeing the same parental involvement in imparting practical skills to kids. Kids used to pick up skills by tinkering with stuff at home with their parents or hanging out with each other toying with little projects, etc. That’s how I learned to use a lot of tools. Nowadays even low income kids have access to videogames and computers, but the computers are usually being used for postings on myspace and music downloads. We’re not teaching practical skills in the schools. We don’t teach kids how to fill out job applications, how to use tools, how to write grammatically correct and accurately spelled sentences.
Ahhh….the continued success of the government school system…..
Teaching to the test is one part of the problem, no doubt. As for parental involvement – believe it or not, I almost posted a piece my father wrote in 1956 on this very topic. Seems that the issue has been around for a lot longer than we think 🙂
And those of you who smirk at the current public school system do so at your own peril. Today’s students are tomorrow’s workers, managers, CEOs, Congressmen and Presidents. The number of students not in public schools pales in comparison to those that are so I would think you would be concerned about your future employees, bosses and representatives.
Amen to that.
Which is why we favor vouchers, to allow parents to choose which schools their children attend.
You don’t understand my point, Jack. All the vouchers in the world won’t change significantly the number of students in private schools, at least not in a short enough time frame to matter. By far, the large majority of students will be educated in the public school system. So it just makes sense to have the public school system be the best it can be.
Perhaps, and perhaps not. Norfolk Public schools costs about $6500/year. Norfolk Christian costs up to $7880 (for high school — public high schools are more expensive than public elementary schools, too). Many parents would send their children to such a high school if it were only $1380/year. (Norfolk Catholic charges $2315 per student, but that may be Catholics only.) Norfolk Academy is more expensive, but it is one of the best in the nation.
Pumping more money into the private schools is bound in increase the supply.
Of course, they would be allowed to choose another public school, too. I don’t think competing for student’s money is a bad thing. We do it for state colleges, don’t we?
Are we assuming that we need a school to teach someone to use a wrench or a hammer?
Maybe this has less to do with what government schools are teaching and more to do with who’s raising the kids.
Actually, I teach kids that stuff in Cub Scouts.
“$7880 (for high school — public high schools are more expensive than public elementary schools, too). Many parents would send their children to such a high school if it were only $1380/year. ”
Whew…you get a discount. It’s over 13k up here in Fairfax. Tuition to the private schools is more too. So do we prorate the money back to the families in certain localities? How do we ensure that we give a FREE education which is federal law?
Jack,
Kudos to you. That’s exactly the point I was trying to make.
I don’t think this is a failure of schools.