Unskilled workers with inadequate math and verbal skills simply do not qualify. Thus, our challenge is to restructure our education system to be responsive to a workplace which normally requires as many as eight to ten skilled workers for every college graduate. This daunting task becomes even more so due to the fact that over the past four or five decades, we have done a pretty good job of convincing the American people that the only path to success is the one that leads to a college degree. It is obvious that new educational options leading to work must be created which are just as exciting and promising as those leading to college. Many of the critical pieces for this kind of system are moving into place.
Many excellent examples exist in Georgia.
Upon graduation from high school, they are immediately employable and have already completed more than half of a diploma program in aircraft structural technology. After completing that program at a technical institute, they may continue their education. With the completion of approximately 30 more credit hours of general education, they can earn an Associate of Applied Science degree. Then they have the option to complete a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in just over two years. Similar options are available to students in the Applied Manufacturing Technology programs offered through Ogeechee Technical Institute for employees of Briggs and Stratton or to Siemens employees who finish an apprenticeship program through Forsyth or Gwinnett County secondary schools and continue at Gwinnett Technical Institute or Lanier Technical Institute.