A bigger focus on technical education

The March 21 article “Some Liberal Arts Colleges Add Career, Technical Training” details a developing trend among colleges and universities to add career and technical education to their curricula in response to a growing need for career-ready college graduates.

COVID-19 has forever changed higher education, but we don’t know what longterm effects the pandemic will have on workforce issues of supply and demand. What we do know is that the needs of employers will be different, unemployment rates likely will remain high for some time; different ways of working will emerge, and a differently trained workforce will be required. More than ever, jobs of the future require experiential learning.

Technical education is the very ethos of middle-skills trade colleges and schools. For colleges like Pittsburgh Technical College that provide rigorous education and training for the middle-skills workforce,technical training is our mission. We have the opportunity — and the responsibility — to own a leadership role in rebuilding our communities as we emerge from this global pandemic.

Historically, colleges with a focus on technical and applied careers have monitored the emerging needs of employers. By partnering with corporations and organizations, we understand how workforce needs are changing. That knowledge helps us to ensure that academic programs are driven by handson, experiential learning with state-of-the-industry technology that mirrors workplace scenarios. For example, PTC’s Smart Building Technology and Network Security and Forensics programs are the direct result of input from business and industry advisory boards.

Middle-skills trade colleges and schools can serve the needs of the workplace to fuel economic redevelopment in our region, while concurrently positioning students to succeed. To do so, we’re going to need to rebuild our employment infrastructure and the educational programs necessary to support it. It’s up to technical and applied educational institutions and corporate leaders to collaborate and guide our region’s emergence from a global pandemic. It will be challenging, but we will anticipate. We will adapt. And we will advance the training and experience needed in the next workforce to rebuild our communities.

ALICIA B. HARVEYSMITH, Ph.D.

President Pittsburgh Technical College

Oakdale