The general idea that massive online education will displace traditional educational methods is a fantasy that we can deliver similar outcomes with much less effort.
To use an example from my local area, Seattle Central College has a Wood Technology Center that trains people in boat building and construction carpentry.
They also have a continuing education division that teaches a series of woodworking classes.
The facility has a lot of equipment (the woodshop has at least a dozen Saw Stop Cabinet making saws.
The instructors have to teach the students to use the equipment safely.
This is a large investment of equipment, real estate, and people, and while it is a fantastic program, it is ultimately limited in how many people can go through it.
Skilled trades, like any skill require time, and instruction to get through, and watching an online lecture on the theoretical and academic parts of a trade might offer some savings, it’s not really the bottleneck in training more people for the trades.
A better intervention would be offering more general training in high-schools, so that students can enter trade school and apprenticeship programs more competent in the basics they’ll need to know.
But that also has a problem. In the middle of the last century, finding qualified shop teachers was fairly easy, those skills were more saturated through society. They’re now much more limited and the people who have them don’t fit the mold we have in mind for teachers.
It might be worth considering having a program for tradespeople who had to retire early due to injury or disability to teach shop classes part time, but that would also involve investing in putting shop facilities back in schools.
Hey, thanks. A lot of interesting notes here. I do know programs back in my home state of Oklahoma that do a pretty good job of integrating skilled trade with high school (check out the vo tech system they have). But there is still a stigma against going to these programs. So a lot of people who probably should have pursued them when they were in HS, skipped for something else. Regrets later. I hope to have a deeper dive into the issue. in the future. Thanks.
While I am generally a proponent of soft tracking for high school (students should be able to choose to go into a vocational track) I think one way to destigmatize it would be requiring shop class. Everyone would have to do it, which erodes the stigma and it’s hard to argue that knowing the basics of working with tools is useful for everyone (though this has to be balanced with opportunity costs, but would also fit in with my general idea that school should have fewer days off and have longer hours that roughly reflect the typical working day
The general idea that massive online education will displace traditional educational methods is a fantasy that we can deliver similar outcomes with much less effort.
To use an example from my local area, Seattle Central College has a Wood Technology Center that trains people in boat building and construction carpentry.
They also have a continuing education division that teaches a series of woodworking classes.
The facility has a lot of equipment (the woodshop has at least a dozen Saw Stop Cabinet making saws.
The instructors have to teach the students to use the equipment safely.
This is a large investment of equipment, real estate, and people, and while it is a fantastic program, it is ultimately limited in how many people can go through it.
Skilled trades, like any skill require time, and instruction to get through, and watching an online lecture on the theoretical and academic parts of a trade might offer some savings, it’s not really the bottleneck in training more people for the trades.
A better intervention would be offering more general training in high-schools, so that students can enter trade school and apprenticeship programs more competent in the basics they’ll need to know.
But that also has a problem. In the middle of the last century, finding qualified shop teachers was fairly easy, those skills were more saturated through society. They’re now much more limited and the people who have them don’t fit the mold we have in mind for teachers.
It might be worth considering having a program for tradespeople who had to retire early due to injury or disability to teach shop classes part time, but that would also involve investing in putting shop facilities back in schools.
Hey, thanks. A lot of interesting notes here. I do know programs back in my home state of Oklahoma that do a pretty good job of integrating skilled trade with high school (check out the vo tech system they have). But there is still a stigma against going to these programs. So a lot of people who probably should have pursued them when they were in HS, skipped for something else. Regrets later. I hope to have a deeper dive into the issue. in the future. Thanks.
While I am generally a proponent of soft tracking for high school (students should be able to choose to go into a vocational track) I think one way to destigmatize it would be requiring shop class. Everyone would have to do it, which erodes the stigma and it’s hard to argue that knowing the basics of working with tools is useful for everyone (though this has to be balanced with opportunity costs, but would also fit in with my general idea that school should have fewer days off and have longer hours that roughly reflect the typical working day
Thanks for the context. I am more thinking in terms of the angle for education, so it's good to hear the side from business. Thanks.