Public policy consultant Roger Vaughan told the Legislature's Economic Development Interim Committee what they like to hear: Utah's on the right track to developing a work force that meets the changing needs of industry.
"I believe you have the opportunity to have the best work force in the United States and the world," Vaughan said in a presentation to the committee Wednesday.While the opportunity is great, the state must rethink how it trains students for jobs in the real world. Vaughn says the solution lies in part in restoring the esteem of technical training in public schools.
He said vocational education has long been considered a punishment or a program to occupy students who do not plan to attend college."That has led to a stigma, a very strong stigma associated with that kind of training," Vaughan said.
While schools and parents push students to seek university degrees, the state faces a shortage of people who are trained in technical skills such as computer-assisted design or integrated manufacturing.
"For every research a company needs, it also needs 10 technicians," he said.
Vaughan suggests the public school system help Utahns learn what training and career opportunities are available to them and how to pursue them. He lauded an innovative program at Hunter Junior High School developed by teachers which exposes seventh-grade students to careers in technology in a hands-on laboratory setting.
"The students are often surprised at the end of the course that they love math, and this isn't a math course."
The state also must create a unified system of lifelong learning accessible to all Utahns.
"We need a training system that can address all kinds of people at all kinds of stages in their lives," Vaughan said. "We need training that's extremely flexible to enroll people in training programs quickly. The Ogden-Weber Applied Technology Center is the best I've seen in the country," he said.
Vaughan prepared a research document titled "Preparing Tomorrow's Work Force - A Technical Strategy for Utah" on behalf of High Technology Council of Department of Community and Economic Development. His research was based on a series of interviews with people involved in technical-training issues in Utah, past reports on Utah's training capabilties and the analysis of training policies in other states.