THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 8, 1995 TAG: 9506060092
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
High school students who graduate with technical skills needed to enter the work force will become increasingly attractive to business and industry employers, state Secretary of Education Beverly Sgro told seniors at the Norfolk Technical Vocational Center.
Sgro, speaking last week at the center's annual awards assembly, said workers trained in technical fields will become the ``backbone of the economy'' in Virginia and the nation in the next century.
By the year 2010, more than 70 percent of the nation's jobs will not require a four-year college education, Sgro said, but instead will demand the technological skills taught in high schools, technical schools and two-year community colleges.
Technical employment is projected to grow by 37 percent between now and 2005, Sgro said, compared to 20 percent in other jobs.
Such a trend means that students who graduate with a ``general diploma'' will become less marketable, Sgro said. The general diploma has come under mounting criticism from business leaders because it enables students to leave high school without the academic background they need for college or the technical skills required in the work place.
Some school districts already have eliminated the general track, a step that Norfolk school officials have discussed but not yet taken.
Sgro offered up a Chinese proverb to express the benefits of a vocational education: ``I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.''
``Vocational students are given the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge they are taught in the classroom,'' Sgro said, calling the Norfolk center one of the best in the state. ``The opportunities you have taken advantage of here will enable you to enhance your career opportunities.''
During the awards ceremony, several scholarships were announced. Two of them, $500 each from Anchor Service Inc., went to the center's ``most outstanding'' students of the year: Aimee Cintron, for practical nursing, and Rebecca Seedorf, for cosmetology II.
Also, Sean Boland, an automotive service technology II student, won a $5,000 Al Unser Scholarship from the Universal Technical Institute. Daniel Gray, a junior printing student, won a $500 scholarship to summer camp at Chowan College. by CNB