An opportune time for Sussex Tech

Sussex Tech has been turning out well educated graduates for many years.

But somehow the school’s emphasis on academic excellence and college preparation has created the impression, if not the reality, that it has veered away from its original mission as a vocational and technical school.

Now the school wants to expand its physical plant and its student body. But there’s a problem. The state’s Legislature has balked at increasing funding that will be necessary to meet current operating expenses, not to mention funds for expansion.

Either Tech’s direction is truly off base, or its messaging needs serious improvement.

Nationally recognized economists and at least one widely recognized television personality are sounding the alarm that not enough of the millennial generation - those born between 1980 and 2000 - are leaning toward the trades as rewarding career options. Isn’t this an opportunity for Tech?

A Georgetown University economist noted recently that retiring baby boomers are leaving high-paying jobs. Over the next two decades, millions of good jobs will be opening in the trades: welders, carpenters, pipefitters, electricians, utility workers. In the electrician world alone, it’s expected that in the next decade half of the nation’s 600,000 electrician jobs will be opening up.

The emphasis on four-year college degrees, said that economist, is obliterating the modernization of our vocational education programs. “We should be preparing a lot more of our young people for well-paying jobs in the trades,” he said. “Jobs that often pay better than those being taken by four-year college graduates.”

Television “Dirty Jobs” star Mike Rowe spoke to the U.S. Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in 2011. “We need to acknowledge the importance of our tradespeople,” said Rowe. “They’re the ones who make civilized life better for the rest of us. It’s time that we have a national public relations campaign for skilled labor.”

Sussex Tech can play a serious role in addressing this. By demonstrating that it can and will align with this need, the school should easily prove its relevance and build support for increased funding.