Colorado S14 said:
I did not attend UM, but Metro State University in Denver. When they were looking to expand their Aerospace Engineering curriculum and build a new building they reached out directly to Lockheed Martin. LM came in and along with the school helped design the classrooms, labs, building, and curriculum for the program. Many of these students now have a direct path to jobs at LM or similar firms as a result. Maybe this sort of thing is happening everywhere but it just struck me as what every school should be doing. Build your programs around what employers want, and then create well defined pathways for students to interact with these companies.
South Carolina has created a system that serves businesses by 'first, by locating a manufacturer interested in opening plants whose workers will be trained PRIOR to their entering the job by a consortium of professional educators, the manufacturing personnel, and local officials. So far, in my midlands area, Mercedes Benz, Volvo. BMW, Husqvarna, Deere have all opened plants. Yet, even here, with terrible schools, some of the people the state is trying to reach out to are seemingly incapable of learning anything. Plants are always looking to hire but even with unemployment in some areas here hovering at 9%+ they cannot find properly trained or willing to train people. I look at it as a failure so gigantic in American life that words are hard to describe. Yes, the age of slavery here is something very much a part of day to day life but that is a two way street and failures are plenty. I look at schools k-12 that are truly bad and the state will spend no money on them because they don't want higher taxes. So, you can train plant workers and manufactures till your blue in the face, if the desire is not there, it is for nought. Trump Country at its worst. The major universities, on the other hand are around average while the many private colleges are stellar. But, they are more in the UM mode. Liberal Arts, Law, Teacher Education. UM offers a valid education but reading some of the posts, it seems some would prefer a trade school. Demands of manufactures and others change, but basic education does not.