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Job-School Study Plan Will Be Defined Soon

Job-School Study Plan Will Be Defined Soon image Job-School Study Plan Will Be Defined Soon image
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Day
22
Month
June
Year
1966
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Representatives of Washtenaw Community College, the county Intermedíate School District, and 10 local school d i stricts began organizing last night for a county-wide study of I vocational-technical education needs.
An interim planning committee of 12 school and college administrators, school and college board members and lay citizens was formed to recommend the I limits of the study to the Ml I group on July 14.
This group will be headed by Leiand B. Luchsinger, execu■ tive assistant to the president of the Community College.
It will make recommendations on questions including whether I the needs study should encompass adult retraining and upgrading as well as high school and college training, whether the geographic area under study should be limited to Washtenaw County and the staff and committee structure of the study group.
Persons representing all the units except Manchester were present last night and voted to have the community college make application for state matching funds for the study by the June 30 deadline.
The college and intermedíate district have previously committed $5,000 each with the expectation it will be matched by $10,000 from the state for a I tal of $20,000. Philip T. Bailey, consultant I for área programs in the state Department of Education, told I the group of school board bers and administrators that the main concern of the federal vocational education act of 1961 is research and development. Under it the state contracts with the federal government specifying how it will spend the money. Michigan has been divided into districts within which the needs for vocational and technical education are being surveyed. There are 34 area studies under way now with the rest of the areas expected to start studies after July 1, Bailey said. Nine completed studies have all recommendëd area facilities, either area vocational high schools or community college-connected plans. The state hopes to develop a state-wide plan for vocational H and technical education, he said. A federal review of the states' accomplishments under the 1961 act is set for 1968. The purpose of the area study is to spell out who is to do what in providing vocational training, what programs are needed how they will be financed and administered, and where they should be located, Bailey said.
He recommendëd questioning parents, prospective students, and business and industry, and defined vocational education as "preparing persons with less than a bachelor's degree to enter the labor market." The state consultant suggested the possibility that Washtenaw County cooperate with Livingston County in the study and others suggested adding parts of Wayne County to the study area. Luchsinger said the community college already has information on the need for upgrading and retraining persons presently employed but that its data is aimed more at post high school and adult education than high school level needs. Discussing the need for the study, Hazen J. Schumacher Jr., a member of the Ann Arbor Board of Education, ed "The presence of the local districts here indicates we feel il we are nol doing the job we II k should in secondary jf al education." Commenting on an earlier 1 È quest from the school tendents that the community m college take on the m ty for llth and 12th grade vo-B '$: cational education, Supt. Vernon H. Jones of Lincoln Consolidated Schools, said his board would prefer the college to "develop on its own before taking over the responsibility we have for high school vocational training."
Dexter Supt. Carleton Hutchinson cautioned the group to be careful of its questions to parents and students, because "as long as industry is paying well, people are often not mature enough to look ahead 25 years." He said high school and junior high school counselors telling students there is a great future in technical training is the best way to reach these students.
Ann Arbor Board Member Lawrence Prakken said he hoped the study would include retraining. The Manpower Development and Training program is most successful in upgrading people who were being technologically left behind, and the community college can't do all that is needed in this field, he said.
He also encouraged the provision of training in fields which require lower skills, stating youth can get started in lower skilled jobs and may go on to more intensive training when they are more mature and motivated.
Lloyd T. Williams, Jr., president of the Ann Arbor Board of Education said the study should not be limited to the labor needs of Washtenaw and Livingston Counties. "The labor market today is an export market," he said, stating other areas should be invited to participate in the study.
Obstacles to the high schools providing meaningful, attractive vocational education were cited by Jones as the higher cost of this type of education, the unavailability of staff at public school salaries, the number of students needed to make a program financially sound and the comprehensiveness of courses needed.

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