GOP’s Putnam calls for more vocational training
GOP candidate for governor Adam Putnam pushed for increased vocational and technical training in schools on a visit to an automotive technology plant outside Orlando on Wednesday.
“We all know there are a lot of ways to accomplish the American dream,” said Putnam, the state agriculture commissioner. “There are a lot of ways to obtain a greatpaying job and a good career that don’t require student loan debt and a four-year university. And it’s OK to say that.”
He took a tour of Voxx Automotive, near Lake Nona, which develops and manufactures auto technology such as the Evo system, a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-integrated screen installed on the backs of car seats.
“We don’t tend to think of Florida as being an automotive manufacturing state,” Putnam said. “And we don’t necessarily tend to think of Florida as an electronics manufacturing state. And yet, right here, we’re putting those two industries together.
“It is exciting to see how many jobs are surrounding that marriage of electronics and OEM [original equipment manufacturer],” he added. “And anybody who’s a parent knows how important it is to have that screen in the back of the front seat to keep the kids happy. And that’s all going on right here in Central Florida.”
Putnam said his “Florida Jobs First Agenda” would include restoring vocational technical training to middle schools and high schools.
“I will modernize career training,” he said. “This is not your dad’s shop class. This is electronics. This is coding. This is health care. It’s advanced manufacturing. It’s the eyes, it’s the quality control. It’s all of the things that are going on right here in this industry and in open, available jobs all over Florida.”
Putnam called the current treatment of technical education “second class,” noting that no state Teacher of the Year has come from that field.
He added that calling for more jobs and training that don’t require degrees “is not a war in universities. This is not pitting vocational training against state colleges. We need both.”
In response, Florida Democratic Party spokesman Kevin Donohoe said Putnam “has an abysmal record on vocational education.”
“In Congress, Putnam spent years voting against job training grants and STEM education,” Donohoe said. “Putnam’s socalled plan to improve vocational education is just a cynical political stunt designed to hide his long record of opposing educational opportunities for Florida students and workers.”
Voxx Automotive president Edward Mas said he agreed with Putnam that “everybody is not geared for college. I was one of those before I figured out what to do.”
Mas, who spent the first 10 years of his career as a welder before deciding to get into management, said “a lot of people start at the bottom and work their way up. You see that here. It’s not just a factory and shipping, you can really make a career here.”
He also said a return of manufacturing jobs doesn’t just mean jobs for factory workers but also engineers and those in other fields.
Putnam faces U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Palm Coast, in the Aug. 28 Republican primary. Former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, Winter Park businessman Chris King and former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine are running in the Democratic primary.