Vocational education in Indiana would match the jobs available in each student’s home territory, under a plan proposed by new Gov. Mike Pence.
Pence’s emphasis on vocational training should pay off for northeastern Indiana, the nation’s No. 1 region for manufacturing jobs.
The governor wants to create eight “regional workforce councils” that would help with retooling vocational classes to fit each region’s needs.
The plan would get employers involved in helping local school corporations design courses to meet their job openings. Employers also would offer apprenticeships and internships that could lead to full-time jobs after high school.
Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, is sponsoring the bill for Pence. Kruse chairs the committee reviewing the bill, so it should move quickly.
“We have thousands of employers who simply can’t find people with the skills they need to fill the jobs that are out there,” Derek Redelman of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce told Kruse’s committee last week.
According to news reports, Redelman said the Chamber’s studies show 931,000 Hoosiers who lack the skills employers need. He said many of those jobs that are going unfilled are in the “middle-skills range — it’s more than high school, but less than a four-year degree.”
Brian Burton of the Indiana Manufacturers Association told the committee that employers have “the number of people we need applying for jobs, but we do not have the number of people with the skills applying for jobs.”
To meet those needs, companies can’t wait for better-prepared high school graduates. Pence also wants to spend an extra $18 million on better job-training programs for adults.
All the focus on creating skilled workers should lead to a balanced education system for Hoosiers.
Pence set a goal “to make career, technical and vocational education a priority in every high school in Indiana” in his State of the State speech last week.
“Even as we encourage every student to go to college, we recognize not every student is college-bound,” Pence said. “But they all deserve the same opportunity for success. … our schools should work just as well for our kids who want to get a job as they do for our kids who want to get a college degree.”
He added, “Career and technical education … can launch entrepreneurs, give kids a reason to finish high school, and create a well-qualified workforce that will encourage business to build here and grow here.”