THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9412020001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Old Dominion University's gaining of a $7 million federal grant to train 1,500 former or soon-to-be-ex-military personnel for civilian-sector jobs will be a winner all around. For:
Students enrolled in the program.
Employers, who will acquire well-trained, highly-motivated workers.
ODU, which will be able to add faculty and laurels at a time of belt-tightening.
Hampton Roads, which will retain many graduates of the program - men and women who have demonstrated their day-in-day worth to their organizations and society.
Taxpayers, who will reap the multiple rewards of investing in people with long, productive lives ahead of them.
ODU's School of Engineering will run the program, which will train students intensively for manufacturing and technical jobs. The course of study will last 16 weeks.
With downsizing in the public and private sectors have come layoffs from well-paid manufacturing jobs and an increase in poorly paid ones. Hampton Roads' economy is bleeding from cuts in defense spending that triggered a fall in orders for new Navy ships and ship maintenance and repair. More cuts are in the region's future.
Amid painful change, word that ODU has been tapped to assist ex-military to take their place as workers in the civilian world is welcome. The news followed the recent announcement of a $10 million federal grant to Norfolk State University to upgrade and expand its materials-research lab and a $3.7 million federal grant to Hampton University for former defense-worker retraining. An above-average payoff from these grants is a reasonable expectation.
Why? Because America has learned since the first G.I. Bill of Rights kicked in at the end of World War II that investment in the education of mature people who have acquired self-discipline in the military and are hungry for the knowledge and skills needed to better themselves is extremely rewarding.
ODU's Military Career Transition Program, which has been in place for some time, has compiled a commendable track record. Among its achievements is the transformation of 320 ex-military into teachers, many of whom are in local school systems.
Like government and manufacturing, health-care and other industries, higher education has been shedding fat - a process not yet ended. The spotlight of late has been on belt-tightening in academe, and that's fitting. Also fitting is pointing to higher education's successes - and experience says the ODU program scores well. by CNB