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Porcelli: The Other Side of Education (2/2)

Jessica Meditz on February 1, 2023

CTE Shop Class:  NOW – IT’S HIGH-TECH

Consider all career options

By Mike Porcelli

To the question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” – consider this: it is always best to weigh every option available in terms of your own personal characteristics. Do not just rely on advice from the “experts,” who don’t really understand you.

The “college is the best path for everyone” concept, created and perpetuated by school counselors and administrators, who were themselves indoctrinated by their own college experiences, is based on several myths that have led generations of students into costly college programs that did not work to develop their maximum potential – leaving them in debt, without valuable job skills.

These education professionals generally have little or no experience with the abilities and earning capabilities of skilled trade workers. For the most part, they themselves have no trade skills and have little appreciation for those who possess them. If their career views are so essentially biased, how can they then give effective career advice?

The primary myth about college grads earning more than those without degrees is based on the classic faulty method of comparing apples and oranges. It compares “average” earnings of various careers, but that technique yields a highly inaccurate picture of occupational salary differentials.

A more accurate evaluation of salary data would compare earnings of people with similar levels of training in various jobs. For example, the average worker with a masters degree will usually earn less than a highly skilled trade worker with a comparable, less costly, level of technical training.

Last week, we reported that the average skilled trade worker in New York City earns more than the average Ph.D professional. Additional research shows that, on an hourly basis, academics with Ph.D’s earn near the minimum wage, while the earnings of Ph.D’s in private industry are about equal to the salaries of similarly credentialed skilled trade workers. This will come as a big surprise to those who have been inculcated with the “college is the only path to career success” myth.

Accurate earnings potential research is essential. But remember, money is not the only factor to consider in career selection. Compatibility of abilities and interests with careers, must be the primary factors considered. 

To better understand the intricacies of career selection, try Googling this: “trade-school-college-statistics.” The search will yield many informative sites. One of the most useful is: https://financesonline.com/trade-school-college-statistics/  

Career counselors: Examine the information on this and similar sites, before giving advice to students.

Students: Do the same, as if your future success depends on it – it will!

Make informed career decisions!

Academic & Trade Education are Two Sides of a Coin. This column explores the impact of CTE programs on students, society, and the economy.

Mike Porcelli: life-long mechanic, adjunct professor, and host of Autolab Radio, is committed to restoring trade education in schools before it’s too late. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-porcelli-master-mechanic-allasecerts/

Porcelli: The Other Side of Education (1/26)

Jessica Meditz on January 25, 2023

CTE Shop Class:  NOW – IT’S HIGH-TECH

Don’t be fooled by statistics

By Mike Porcelli

Schools should provide education that matches students’ abilities and talents. Many education experts now agree.

Michael J. Petrilli, leader of the Hoover Institution’s education policy think tank, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, says: “Those of us in the policy world have gotten it wrong… thinking that high schools’ only job is preparing kids for a four-year liberal arts degree.” 

I’ve seen how this, “college for every student policy,” has destroyed trade education. For decades, students whose abilities and learning styles do not conform with the opinions of school administrators, have been deprived of their best educational opportunities in CTE programs, and subsequently – highly lucrative careers. 

In 1994, President Bill Clinton said, “We are living in a world where what you earn is a function of what you can learn.”

With that in mind, parents who want their children to achieve success, try to guide them toward their best educational options. Unfortunately for many, especially low-income parents with limited education backgrounds themselves, this is an impossible task. They therefore rely on so-called “experts” for advice.

Since I was in grade school, most giving career guidance have spouted statistics showing that college graduates earn much more than non-grads – leading students and parents to believe that the only path to success is a sheepskin. This has led millions to drop out of colleges – with low skills and high levels of debt. 

Here’s how the experts’ figures are misleading. They generally compare the lifetime earnings of all college grads to those with just a high school diploma. These numbers are distorted by the earnings of people at the extreme high and low ends. For example, most professional sports stars making millions each year, and other top-tier professionals, have college degrees. This tends to skew their income distribution toward the higher end of the spectrum. Conversely, unemployed, partially unemployed and part-time workers lower the average income of those without college.

I suggest that a better examination would assess the earnings of the middle 80 percent of the worker population. When comparing median earnings of most college grads to the same segment with a high school education and some sort of trade-certification, the earnings gap all but disappears. 

Although the disparity in earnings of college graduates and those with only a high school education may be great, when compared to high school grads with trade skills certifications, for most of the population, there is no distinguishable difference in incomes. 

Consider this when choosing schools: Recent statistics show median earnings of Ph.D.s in the humanities were $80,000 and the median earnings for all Ph.D.s are generally $104,000. Most skilled trade workers in New York City make much more than that, working in both the public and private sectors – with little or no college debt.

Who’s smarter now?

Academic & Trade Education are Two Sides of a Coin. This column explores the impact of CTE programs on students, society, and the economy.

Mike Porcelli: life-long mechanic, adjunct professor, and host of Autolab Radio, is committed to restoring trade education in schools before it’s too late. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-porcelli-master-mechanic-allasecerts/

Porcelli: The Other Side of Education (1/12)

Jessica Meditz on January 11, 2023

CTE Shop Class: Now It’s High-Tech

Schools redefining the mission

By Mike Porcelli

Student success is the mission

Now that we have resolved to make it our mission to end the catastrophe in American education, by ensuring that schools teach: The Skills They Aren’t Teaching but Must, how can we best accomplish this goal? I suggest we begin by redefining the mission of our schools.

The purpose of education must be to prepare students for both successful personal and professional lives, by providing them every possible opportunity to develop their natural talents and abilities to their highest potential, not the production of “graduates,” with no real life or career skills, as has been the case recently.

This process must begin in grade school, by designing practices that allow young students to demonstrate their interests and learning styles.

Everyone who has ever observed toddlers at play, sees how they exhibit what they are interested in, what gets them excited and how they like to explore their world.

In their first school experiences, kids must be allowed the freedom to show how they like to learn and what they want to be taught. Schools must study these indicators and tailor education programs that match each student’s unique characteristics. This is where students can be identified as academic or CTE candidates – or both.

Early in life, children exhibit what sports and hobbies they like to participate in. Schools have always been very good at identifying the physical and other attributes that suggest what sports students are best equipped for. That’s why there are no 300-pound linebackers on the gymnastics team, and why tall students do well in basketball. Schools must use that same logic in guiding students into their best areas of study.

Middle school is the place where students should have the opportunity to expand their areas of interest and explore all possible career fields that might be appropriate for them. Only then can they have the information needed to understand if their natural talents match the requirements of those professions and begin to select the high school program that’s best for them, just as they chose their ideal sports teams.

As I have reiterated many times, high schools must provide both academic and vocational training programs that develop each student’s individual abilities, with the goal of maximizing their personal potential. High schools must abandon their objective of pushing every student they can into the college-debt-trap, which causes half of them to drop out. School “productivity” has been measured by how many students register for college, not how many of them get degrees. This has to end now.

Every school must offer each student the educational experience that best prepares them for future success in higher education, careers and life. Their mission must be to maximize each student’s potential for success in every path they take after high school. The school’s success should be judged on their effectiveness in meeting this goal, not by how many college-bound graduates they produce.

Let’s value quality over quantity and effectiveness rather than productivity.

Judge schools’ success by that standard.

Academic & Trade Education are Two Sides of a Coin. This column explores the impact of CTE programs on students, society, and the economy.

Mike Porcelli: life-long mechanic, adjunct professor, and host of Autolab Radio, is committed to restoring trade education in schools before it’s too late. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-porcelli-master-mechanic-allasecerts/ 

Porcelli: The Other Side of Education (12/29)

Jessica Meditz on December 28, 2022

CTE Shop Class: Now It’s High-Tech

Who makes the holidays happy?

By Mike Porcelli

Workers put up the first Rockefeller Christmas Tree in 1931. (Photo courtesy of Tishman Speyer)

As we celebrate our many year-end holiday traditions and enter a new year and a new chapter in our lives – let’s teach our children, and many adults, about the many skilled workers who make the holiday season possible.

“Tis the season to be jolly” …we greet each other with, “Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays.” But do we ever consider what it takes to make the holidays happy? Most people don’t think about all the things we take for granted, and the skilled trade workers who help us enjoy the holidays.

For example, the symbol of the season in this city – the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. It is a brilliantly decorated emblem of the spirit of the holidays.

This tradition, originated by the construction workers who built Rockefeller Center during the Great Depression, continues to attract millions of admirers each year. How many skilled workers did it take to build Rockefeller Center, and how many more are needed to recreate this iconic attraction every Christmas? Starting with the farmers who grow the tree, to the many workers who cut it down, load it onto an oversize trailer, transport it over highways others build, and use huge cranes to lift it onto a stand built by others…not to mention those who use more cranes to install millions of lights and decorations that make it the national representation of the season. Don’t forget the electrical workers who power those lights, and countless other skilled tradesmen.

In addition to the millions of visitors admiring “The Tree” each year, millions more use every means of conveyance to travel home for the holidays. How happy would this season be without the cars, trains, and planes that transport us to holiday family dinners? Without the people who build those vehicles and keep them running, many of us would have a very lonely holiday.

As children, we believe the toys delivered by Santa come from the North Pole. As we grow older, we learn how goods and services are really produced. But for decades, many schools have misled students with another fiction – that the skilled trades are not valuable careers, and they must be college educated to become successful.

Unlike the myth of the North Pole – this one is harmful…depriving many students of rewarding careers.

Children know that without the skilled elves who build the toys and load them onto Santa’s sleigh, there would be nothing under their trees. In the real world, it’s time for schools everywhere to begin promoting the value of trade education and celebrating the work of the millions of skilled CTE graduates – by producing more of them. Schools MUST provide more CTE training, before those who make our holidays happy are gone.

Use this holiday season to teach young children the importance of Santa’s skilled worker elves and teach adults the value of all real-world skilled trade workers. Our New Year’s resolution should be: Create more CTE programs for all students who can benefit from them.

Enjoy the happy holidays provided by our skilled trade workers. We need: many, many more – and then some!

Teach them – now and in the future…and tools make great gifts for many of us!

Academic & Trade Education are Two Sides of a Coin. This column explores the impact of CTE programs on students, society, and the economy.

Mike Porcelli: life-long mechanic, adjunct professor, and host of Autolab Radio, is committed to restoring trade education in schools before it’s too late. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-porcelli-master-mechanic-allasecerts/ 

Porcelli: The Other Side of Education (12/22)

Jessica Meditz on December 21, 2022

CTE Shop Class: Now It’s High-Tech

Education and economy – A new look

With all the talk about revamping education, try viewing the relationship between education and the economy through the eyes of an engineer.

Think of the economy/education model as a 2-tower suspension bridge, over the dangerous waters of global competition, where the suspended roadway represents our economy.

The road is the path society takes from our past to the future. It is supported by our educational institutions – in this case, the two supporting towers.

The foundation of the bridge is our basic education system, in which primary schools lay the groundwork for future learning – represented here by the bedrock and footings that the towers are built on.

One of those towers is the traditional college & university system, while the other represents community colleges and trade schools. 

The towers support the main cables, anchored on the shores of the past and the future. Those cables are all the careers within the economy.

People climb the towers of education to train for those careers that produce economic growth. Workforce development is about strengthening the main cables by continually raising the level of expertise in each career-path and training individual workers. Those workers are the suspension lines hanging from the main cables to support the roadbed… the economy.

Driving over the road is society, as it moves from the past to the future, above the dangerous waters of economic competition.

For this economic bridge to move us from past, to present and beyond, it must be built on a solid foundation of primary education – a period where students should learn what their aptitudes and strengths are and how to develop those abilities to their maximum potential. Only then can they know which tower will lead to their most successful career paths.

The choices students face when deciding which tower best suits them should not be hampered by lack of resources in those areas. The towers of education must provide the assets needed to meet the needs of all students to achieve their potential for maximum success – whether they choose a conventional college path, or trade education, or both. Yes, both!

For most of our lifetimes, we have shortchanged the material needed to strengthen the trade education tower. This has led to a reduction in the number of wires in the main cables… the loss of skilled trades.

The reduction of trade training led to the skilled worker shortage. In this case, the missing suspension cables that no longer hold up the roadbed.

Even non-engineers can understand what happens to a bridge with a weakened tower and missing cables. It begins with economic decay, leading to a catastrophic collapse.

Our economic/education bridge must be rebuilt with equally strong towers of trade and academic infrastructure – or economic collapse is imminent.

The restoration of trade education is now critical. The skilled worker shortage is the greatest danger facing our bridge.

 

Don’t let it collapse.

Academic & Trade Education are Two Sides of a Coin. This column explores the impact of CTE programs on students, society, and the economy.

Mike Porcelli: life-long mechanic, adjunct professor, and host of Autolab Radio, is committed to restoring trade education in schools before it’s too late. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-porcelli-master-mechanic-allasecerts/ 

Porcelli: The Other Side of Education (12/15)

Jessica Meditz on December 14, 2022

CTE Shop Class: Now It’s High-Tech

Progress in trade education…I hope

By Mike Porcelli

For most of my life, I’ve participated in trade education from every possible angle. I’ve served on high school and college trade ed advisory boards and lobbied elected officials to increase CTE programs as they were continually diminished.

Four years ago, I was inspired by an article from a high school classmate about how college was a waste for many of those attending. He got me thinking about why the programs offered in our high school, those I had promoted for decades, were no longer available to most students.

Around the same time, I discovered an article by Michael Bloomberg and Jamie Dimon on why vocational education is crucial to the economy, but schools were no longer teaching those skills.

That experience led me into researching the subject more deeply and advocating more strongly for the restoration of CTE programs on radio and TV, as well as in these pages. I also began more actively working with DOE schools and workforce organizations to expand CTE as much as possible. It has been frustrating to see virtually no increase in training programs over that time…until now.

Recently, I’ve been pleased that DOE is beginning to see the light. Three months ago, at a news conference with Mayor Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks, a partnership was announced between DOE, New York Jobs Ceo Council and CareerWise New York to create job training for high school students who were not heading directly into the college-debt-mill.

Their modern apprenticeships offer students opportunities in growing NYC industries and practical learning experience in addition to their classroom instruction.

CareerWise New York is an employer-led, student-focused collaboration, with a mission to ensure young people have access to job opportunities and employers get the talent they need. The program is based on the Swiss system, widely regarded as the world standard in linking apprenticeships, education and industry. 

Since Bloomberg and Dimon wrote about the need for trade education years ago, Bloomberg L.P. and J. P. Morgan Chase have contributed millions into education and training programs, locally and nationwide.

At the September news conference, along with other businesses, they pledged even more money to fund the CareerWise partnership.

The mayor, chancellor and every other sponsor are to be commended for establishing this program to benefit students and industry together.

To learn more: https://working.nyc.gov/?p=1991 & https://www.careerwisenewyork.org/en/ 

As commendable as this program is, it appears to suffer from the same problem many CTE schools have, which is an implicit bias regarding “vocational education programs.” The career fields in this program do not appear to include any of the “hands-on trades.”

The construction and mechanical trades are somehow not included when most people advocate for CTE education. They prefer “clean” CTE programs, at the expense of training mechanics, carpenters, plumbers and the other highly skilled people who keep the world running.

Industrial bias must end. Begin by opening this program to all trades, especially those in shortest supply. Workforce skills must match demand.

Academic & Trade Education are Two Sides of a Coin. This column explores the impact of CTE programs on students, society, and the economy.

Mike Porcelli: life-long mechanic, adjunct professor, and host of Autolab Radio, is committed to restoring trade education in schools before it’s too late. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-porcelli-master-mechanic-allasecerts/ 

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