[RANT]
This morning while eating breakfast I was reading the Hartford Courant’s “Town Section” of the paper and there was an article about a college/job fair. The article had photos of the different school that attended the event; many of them were “technical institutes” and that is what I want to rant about this morning.
But first disclaimers…
My father was the director (the principal) of E.C. Goodwin Technical School and then was the head of the four state two year Technical Colleges.
And I am a graduate of Waterbury Technical College.
I was the head of a test department for 25 years and over those years I got to interview many job applicants for electronic technicians and I got to interview many graduates from the “technical institutes.” What I found was the best technicians were from…
Back in the mid-seventies the “technical institutes” put pressure on the legislators to close the technical colleges because the private “technical institutes” could do it better without cost to the state(but move the expense to the student). But what I found was a diploma mill, if you wanted to repair copiers they were the place for you. If you wanted to do circuit board testing and repair well you were and still are out of luck.
The state community colleges started an Engineering Technology program but it is a very watered down version of the Technical College program. At Waterbury Technical College we had more technical classes and more labs; we had classes from motor/generator theories to computer programming.
Back in the early seventies we both recognized that the technical colleges were going the way of the dinosaurs here in Connecticut, while other states were embracing technical colleges Connecticut was going down the path of privatization. I lobbied my father to push having a school of technology within the state community college systems, that way they could autonomy in their curriculum, but in the late eighties and early nineties the community colleges started an Engineering Technology program which was a shadow of the old technical colleges.
I think what the state needs to do is to create School of Technology within the community college system that emphasizes technology over general studies; they need to talk to industry to find out what skills are needed here in the state. When my father was the head of the four state two year Technical Colleges he used to be in constant touch with businesses to access their needs. Let’s face it, the community colleges do a good job in general studies, they offer many concentrations but technology needs more than two or three classes tacked on to general studies classes, it needs it the other way around general studies classes tacked on to technology classes.
The state technical schools do a wonderful job of teaching high school students the trades and basic electronics but it is only a 5 year high school (the fifth year is because of the apprenticeship program).
[/RANT]
This morning while eating breakfast I was reading the Hartford Courant’s “Town Section” of the paper and there was an article about a college/job fair. The article had photos of the different school that attended the event; many of them were “technical institutes” and that is what I want to rant about this morning.
But first disclaimers…
My father was the director (the principal) of E.C. Goodwin Technical School and then was the head of the four state two year Technical Colleges.
And I am a graduate of Waterbury Technical College.
I was the head of a test department for 25 years and over those years I got to interview many job applicants for electronic technicians and I got to interview many graduates from the “technical institutes.” What I found was the best technicians were from…
- Tied for first place: the state Technical Colleges and the military.
- Then came the state technical schools
- And in last place were the so called “technical institutes”
Back in the mid-seventies the “technical institutes” put pressure on the legislators to close the technical colleges because the private “technical institutes” could do it better without cost to the state(but move the expense to the student). But what I found was a diploma mill, if you wanted to repair copiers they were the place for you. If you wanted to do circuit board testing and repair well you were and still are out of luck.
The state community colleges started an Engineering Technology program but it is a very watered down version of the Technical College program. At Waterbury Technical College we had more technical classes and more labs; we had classes from motor/generator theories to computer programming.
Back in the early seventies we both recognized that the technical colleges were going the way of the dinosaurs here in Connecticut, while other states were embracing technical colleges Connecticut was going down the path of privatization. I lobbied my father to push having a school of technology within the state community college systems, that way they could autonomy in their curriculum, but in the late eighties and early nineties the community colleges started an Engineering Technology program which was a shadow of the old technical colleges.
I think what the state needs to do is to create School of Technology within the community college system that emphasizes technology over general studies; they need to talk to industry to find out what skills are needed here in the state. When my father was the head of the four state two year Technical Colleges he used to be in constant touch with businesses to access their needs. Let’s face it, the community colleges do a good job in general studies, they offer many concentrations but technology needs more than two or three classes tacked on to general studies classes, it needs it the other way around general studies classes tacked on to technology classes.
The state technical schools do a wonderful job of teaching high school students the trades and basic electronics but it is only a 5 year high school (the fifth year is because of the apprenticeship program).
[/RANT]
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