Teaching Technical Skills A Great Necessity
Nobody works with their hands anymore, except to tap a keyboard or roll a mouse. Nobody makes things anymore. The future belongs to “knowledge workers,” who will manipulate bits of electronic data, not bend metal. Manufacturing? Not in America.
Not true.
Ten years ago, Los Gatos High’s industrial technology program was a “model manufacturing site,” funded by federal and state grants, and equipment donated by Silicon Valley companies. It was one of five statewide. It is one of two that are still up and running.
But if manufacturing is dead, why does the phone keep ringing? “Industry in this valley is clamoring for my kids,” says teacher Ron Cassel. Demand for machinists, lathe operators and welders is booming; some companies pay employees a bonus for bringing in skilled workers. “There’s very little of this kind of education left, and industry doesn’t like to train. I get them calling me. ‘Have you got anybody we can talk to?”’
Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported on an Ohio factory that cannot fill jobs that pay $29,000. There are thousands of applicants, but few have adequate algebraic and English skills.
High school graduates with a C average used to qualify for these jobs. Now, they go to college, believing that is the only route to success. The D students are not considered trainable.
The irony is that most C students do not get much out of college. They drop out. While more than half of high school graduates go on to college, only 30 percent will earn a bachelor’s degree. And, even those who graduate may end up in a $22,000-a-year retail job, while they figure out how to acquire real-world skills.
Entry-level pay for a machinist is $30,000 to $35,000 a year, Cassel says.
His “conventional manufacturing” students learn welding, machining, casting metals and fabricating sheet metal. They learn to work with their hands - and their brains. Students need math, at least through geometry. They need good communications skills, so they can write reports, read documents, understand what the boss wants and explain what they are doing.
Some go on to De Anza College’s advanced technology center. A “2 plus 2” program links high school with community college - and with real jobs. Others go to work.
Industrial tech also attracts the sort of students who never took “shop” in the old days. What used to be the auto shop is devoted to computer-assisted design and manufacturing.
Meredith Harrington was drawn in through mathematics. A top math student, she could use her geometry, trigonometry and physics.
Jason Feldt likes to draw. After taking a computer-assisted drafting class, he decided it would be fun to turn his drawings into something real.
Harrington plans to study engineering at Princeton, MIT, Caltech, University of Southern California or University of California, San Diego. Girls are supposed to give up on math and science in high school, but she has “never been discouraged in anything I wanted to do.” It is, she explains tactfully, “a new era.”
Feldt hopes to study mechanical or electrical engineering at Cal Poly, Berkeley or Caltech, and work some day at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. Already, he has worked at local companies as a machine shop hand one summer, a systems engineer the next.
Harrington and Feldt, both seniors, can add a line to their college applications: Along with teammate Aaron Baker, now a mechanical engineering student at USC, they are the best in the nation in automated manufacturing, winners of the Skill Olympics run by Vocational and Industrial Clubs of America this summer.
Feldt designed the product on the computer. Baker used his drawing to develop a machine tool path to cut the part. Harrington milled it on a computer-controlled machine.
A last-minute change order - the real-world touch - forced them to rework their plan. The computer went down five times. The tool-pathing software could not handle some of the work, so the team scrambled to do it manually.
By the end of the day, they had designed and manufactured their product, a three-dimensional model of a cellular phone.
Not only did they win in the high school division, they also outscored all the college teams.
Engineering colleges want students who combine hands-on experience with theoretical knowledge. Employers want workers who can go from design to production, working together, solving problems, getting the job done.
Many Silicon Valley high schools are pretty good at preparing students for college, not so good at preparing students for the real world. Kids do not see how their classwork connects to their futures. Employers do not call.
But, even in the Information Age, there will be a demand for people who can turn an idea into a thing.
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