Times Have Changed

Times have changed and the NH economy is on the rebound. How can I personally tell? Our students are now in demand by area employers. Of note, businesses in automotive technology, culinary, manufacturing, and construction fields are contacting CTE Centers expressing the need for employees now. They have a “few” (mind you, not an abundance) good jobs that need filling.

One talented young man in our Automotive Technology Program is faced with the dilemma of going off to school to study diesel engines, or remaining here and working for a decent starting wage. This is a tough dilemma for some students who have tasted the income now. Paralleling this single dilemma, is the historical enrollment pattern for community colleges - enrollment goes up in slower economic times - and goes down during good times. Education is put on hold. This gets me, and I am sure many of you, anxious.

How do we create a system to balance both the need to work and learn? Apprentice and co-op models are of interest and worthy of community support. I admire many of these young adults who work during the day and attend school at night. It is a very “old-school” model and their effort is admirable. It involves a tough mix of social life sacrifice and career investment. Seeing a young person work as a plumbing apprentice during the day and attending master plumber classes at night is impressive.

My generation’s (as well as my parents’ generation) context for education was to “front-load,” do school, then do work. Times are changing and the learning continuum (aligned with career changes) is much more diverse and much less linear. A good source of thinking on this matter is Georgetown’s Center for Education and the Workforce.

Young people today are faced with a number of challenges and opportunities. Their future pathway is more complex and in many ways, more invigorating. In any case, this unpredictability further re-enforces the need to leave high school with a healthy core set of academic, thinking, and employability skills that can be applied to many work opportunities impossible to anticipate at this time.

Steve Rothenberg
Director