Ralph Conroy receives at least six calls each month from business owners in the Presque Isle area, telling him about job openings for students. Companies are in dire need of reliable, skilled workers and want to hire students at the Presque Isle Tech Center, where Mr. Conroy is the director.
Conroy said his colleagues at Maine's 27 career and technical centers are having the same experience. The state, like the nation, suffers from a shortage of skilled workers, exacerbated by the gradual aging of the current workforce in fields such as plumbing, welding and electrical work.
Businesses across the state are increasingly looking to career and trade schools as potential solutions.
Over the past five years, enrollment in Maine's career and technical schools has steadily increased, leading to new course offerings, according to the Maine Department of Education. Still, technical center directors are concerned about staffing and space capacity.
Career and technical programs allow students (usually high school students) to spend a portion of their class time learning practical skills in a variety of fields, from biomedicine to culinary arts to farm mechanics to electric vehicle technology. I can.
Students can apply these skills directly to enter the job market after graduation, receive a hands-on education through the community college system, or use credits toward a four-year degree. .
According to the Department of Education, enrollment in career and vocational schools exceeded 10,000 for the first time in the state.
“Kids are looking for relevance in their education. I think especially since COVID-19, they're starting to ask, 'Why am I taking these classes?' . Will what I am learning apply to the life I am heading into? '' Conroy said.
“They're choosing things that interest them, things that are relevant. And (career and technical education) fits very well into that.”
The programs that are popular vary widely from center to center. Two center directors said students typically fill out a survey about programs they might be interested in, which informs them about what courses can be added to the CTE center.
St. John Valley offers a wealth of welding and advanced technology programs. For Presque Isle, it's the Farm Mechanics program, which is filled to capacity with his 24 students participating in practical classes in his two shifts of 12 students each.
In the Ellsworth area, health care worker programs, automotive technology and diesel technology programs are full, said Bill Tracy, director of the Hancock County Technical Center. And in Brunswick, programs in culinary arts, metalworking and building trades are full, with waiting lists for next year.
Increased enrollment in these programs is clearly positive and critical to Maine's economy, according to technical center directors from around the state and longtime supporter and former Hancock County Rep. Brian Langley. It is said that
Although enrollment growth has been inconsistent across programs, most technical centers report increased interest from students, and all four technical center directors main monitor We plan to add more programs next school year in response to student demand.
Programs range from cybersecurity and smart car technology to welding, electrical and plumbing.
At the same time, Langley said the stigma historically associated with students choosing technical programs and trade schools over four-year colleges is diminishing, although not completely. Both of these factors are increasing students' interest in developing industry skills.
“There is a shortage of people working in the trade and technical fields, which has resulted in an increased demand for talent and increased wages in these fields, making these fields now very lucrative professions for people. ,” Langley said. He said.
“People are looking at the return on investment in post-secondary (education) and are probably making different choices.”
Promoting program expansion due to staffing and space constraints
Gov. Janet Mills' administration supports the CTE program, which has put millions into the state's schools in recent years. Last year, she said four schools in Maine would receive $15 million in grants through the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan to add programs and build facilities.
One report found that the state has increased CTE funding by more than $10 million over the past four years, including $1.6 million to help with rising commodity costs and $1.6 million to expand CTE early childhood education programs. $100,000 and $500,000 to expand middle school CTE programs. A spokesperson for the ministry.
Despite these efforts, space and staffing constraints continue to hold back centers across the state.
The Hancock County Technical Center has approximately 250 students, and several programs have waitlists because the aging building does not have enough space to accommodate all students interested in a particular program. Director Tracy said that it was listed in .
The building that houses the technical center was built in 1965, and Tracy has applied to the state for approval for a new building multiple times over the past seven years. Meanwhile, nearly half of the students who applied to the popular program Automotive Technology had to be rejected due to space constraints, he said.
To meet student demand while dealing with a lack of space in the building, Tracy had to rely on community partnerships to begin offering a firefighter program next year. The center's welding program also runs off-site at Bucksport High School, allowing more students to participate.
Another big issue facing all four Tech Center directors is staffing. School staffing shortages have been prevalent across the United States for years, and hiring CTE teachers is no exception.
Many of the instructors employed by career and technical centers come from industry and may take a pay cut to teach. Also, as part of the certification process, he must balance taking and teaching seven courses at the college level, which can take years.
DOE does not collect staffing data from CTE centers, so there is no estimate of the statewide staffing shortage.
“So you're going to be mentoring instructors who have the potential to make quite a bit of progress and are determined to come here and go through a lot of hoops to get certified,” Tracy said.
“When you find yourself in that situation, it’s hard to hire.”
CTE-only high school proposal rejected
To meet the growing demand for CTE, administrators at the Brunswick Region 10 Technical High School are enrolling approximately 300 full-time and part-time students in a building that integrates career and technical programs and typical elements. We proposed a high school that would accommodate 100 students. Traditional high school with core instruction in English and math, extracurriculars, special education, and sports.
The first-of-its-kind $60 million high school proposal was supported by a 2023 study conducted by Hart Consulting.
This study examines the challenges of part-time CTE instruction, including coordinating student schedules, relying on school districts to determine the credits a student can earn in CTE, and competency challenges associated with increased interest in hands-on education. are listed.
A proposal to build a new high school at Brunswick Landing was defeated last December by a task force made up of state legislators, CTE directors and industry representatives.
Members of the task force who rejected the plan were partly concerned that enrollment in other technology centers in the region would decline, and called for better funding for existing centers rather than building new ones. He said the focus should be on providing.
However, Region 10 Technical High School Superintendent Sean Chabot still believes in the need for Region 10 to seek to establish a full-time CTE high school and will find other means, including legislative support, to advance it. He said he intended to do so.
Meanwhile, the school enrolls about 300 part-time students from three surrounding school districts, which is expected to grow to about 350 next school year with the addition of new programs.
“If we can incorporate math, science, social studies and English into the fields that students are going to study, whether it's hard trades or other trades or careers, that's relevant,” Chabot said.
“And they don't really ask the question, 'Why do I learn this?'” I would never use this. ” “
While the proposed school would not take enrollment away from other centers, it would allow more students to attend CTE and remove some of the capacity constraints faced around the Brunswick area. Chabot said.
different occasions
Small school directors are frustrated because CTE is funded by a combination of state and federal funds, and the programs a school can offer are determined in part by enrollment levels.
According to the Maine Department of Education's CTE grant standards, a program must have an average of 12 or more students over a three-year enrollment period to earn a full-time instructor salary.
Kevin Lavoie, director of St. John Valley Technology Center, the northernmost CTE school in Maine, asked the Maine Education Policy Foundation to increase the admissions threshold for funding small CTE centers to eight students. petitioned to support the introduction of legislation to change the .
The Lavoie center enrolls approximately 107 high school students (including 65 middle school students as part of a pilot program), about a quarter of the total population of the four sending schools; of CTE centers. Said.
His center, like other centers in the state, has seen an increase in enrollment, with some of its 11 programs, such as welding and advanced technology, at capacity, but not yet. There are also many programs. If a program doesn't have enough students, it risks losing state funding for instructors.
Meanwhile, like other programs in the state, we plan to add three programs next year based on student demand while addressing space and staffing challenges.
“Just because we have such an enrollment, why shouldn't we offer students the same opportunities and a variety of programs as Hancock County and Portland?”