OCR Text |
Show Utahns Generally Agree on the Need for More Vocational Ed Utah Educators and community com-munity leadeers generally a gree that more emphasis is needed on the vocational-technical branch of the state's overall ov-erall educational effort, according accor-ding to Utah Foundation, the private, nonprofit, public service ser-vice agency. However, there appear to be differences of opinion on just what constitutes vocational education, ed-ucation, the amount of support it is now receiving and the a-mount a-mount of support it should receive re-ceive and on the question of who should administer the program, pro-gram, especially at the post-secondary post-secondary level. These differences differ-ences tend to obscure the overall over-all agreement and to hinder efforts to reach generally a-greed a-greed goals, the Foundation noted in a research report issued is-sued this week. "A first effective step toward an improved vocational education educa-tion program might be for representatives rep-resentatives of the Utah System Sys-tem of Higher Education, the State Board of Education, organized or-ganized labor, and the business community to get together to iron out existing problems," the Foundation report stated. "These groups, best trained and most knowledgeable in the field, could put their special abilities to work to end minor disagreements and adopt a set of agreed definitions. Major goals could be defined, and avenues to them broadly outlined. out-lined. "If this were accomplished, it should be considerable easier to obtain unified community support for a vocational education educa-tion program more effectively meeting the needs of Utah Citizens Cit-izens than that we now have." Although Utah's vocational education program is general- ly regarded as falling short of meeting the state's needs, considerable con-siderable progress is being a-chieved, a-chieved, the Foundation noted. Enrollments in vocational courses, cour-ses, funds for the vocational program, and the proportion of the state's total appropriation to higher education which goes to the two Technical Colleges in Provo and Salt Lake City, have all steadily increased in recent years. The vocational education problem is not a matter of money alone in the opinion of those in charge, the Foundation Founda-tion reported, but involves community attitudes and support, sup-port, the directing of students best fitted for vocational careers car-eers into proper training channels, chan-nels, and other factors. "The question of which comes com-es first, more students or more money, is something like the old question of which comes first, the chicken or the egg-but egg-but the two have to develop in close relation to one another," an-other," the state director of vocational vo-cational education told the Foundation. Traditional prejudices, fa-oring fa-oring academic over vocational vocation-al education, continue to hinder hind-er the development of the vocational vo-cational program. Surprisingly Surprising-ly a significant part of the problem centers in parents who have achieved successful careers car-eers in vocational fields, but are determined that their own children will go to the more prestigious four-year colleges. A major gain in the vocational vocation-al field will be marked this fall, when, under a program being be-ing instituted by the State Department De-partment of Higher Education, credits will be transferable a-mong a-mong all of Utah's nine post-secondary post-secondary institutions, including includ-ing the Technical Colleges and the Universities. This will enable en-able students to take courses in vocational training, enter the labor market for an indefinite time, and later reenter the field of higher education and pursue more advanced degrees if they so desire. This has been a long sought goal, never before a-chieved a-chieved in Utah, and one which is recommended by many national na-tional authorities including a recent report by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. Educa-tion. Utah's post-secondary vocational voca-tional courses are generally highly regarded, but lack sufficient suf-ficient variety of choice, the Foundation reported. On the other hand, the state's secondary second-ary program is relatively weak especially in preparing students stu-dents who will take no further formal schooling, either vocational voca-tional or academic, for the job market and for their responsibilities respon-sibilities of citizenship. Approximately Approx-imately 45 per cent of Utah students do not proceed beyond high school in formal education. educa-tion. One of the biggest weaknesses weakness-es in the high school vocational urogram cited in the Foundation Founda-tion report is the matter of counseling. High school coun-' selors are almost all academically-oriented and do not know the job market. It is recommended recom-mended that counselors be given giv-en fully rounded backgrounds so that they can more effectively effect-ively help students to select educational ed-ucational channels and career goals for which they are best suited. |