THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 TAG: 9701220373
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 71 lines
It's a familiar scene: The bored student asks his teacher just what his schoolwork has to do with ``real life.''
Well, business people in Chesapeake may be wondering the same thing - and now at least a few of them are going to find out.
``What are the things you're seeing the students aren't able to do when they graduate?'' School Board member L. Thomas Bray asked the business people who had assembled for the first meeting of Chesapeake Public Schools Academic Tech Prep Committee Tuesday.
Bray, who is chairman of the committee, said the purpose of the group is to give the city's business leaders an opportunity to say how the schools' curricula can better match their needs in the workplace.
The Academic Tech Prep program itself - which melds a rigorous academic curriculum with vocational skills - has actually been implemented in the schools for a few years. What's new is that school officials are reaching out to representatives of the city's 10 largest employers to help them evaluate how they're doing, said Robert Head, program administrator for Vocational Education.
Head said the committee was formed to raise awareness about just what students, particularly Tech Prep students, are learning these days.
``We'd call (business people) and they'd say, `Gosh, it sounds great. I don't really know anything about it,' '' Head said. ``They're the ones who we are going to go to for internships and externships.''
But the committee's primary responsibility will be to help strengthen the curriculum by adding a needed business perspective.
``Unfortunately, most folks who teach have never worked (in a business),'' Head said.
Tuesday's meeting was just an introduction to the program, but some of the business representatives had ideas on what skills they'd like to see high school graduates have.
``We're sincere when we say we want to know what your opinion is,'' Bray said to the business representatives. Half of the businesses invited attended the meeting, including Sumitomo Machinery, Household Credit Services and Verbatim.
One participant, Charles M. Smith Jr., vice president of human resources for Southland Technologies, said many of his employees were lacking basic math skills.
During an in-house training course offered by Southland to 42 employees, 80 percent failed the final exam because they could not use fractions and decimals, Smith said. Some of the employees, who were all high school graduates with an average age of 30, had to complete the course three times before they passed the exam.
``Students need more technical training to fill the needs of the jobs,'' Smith said. ``We have jobs, and we're looking for the right people to fill them.''
Other participants said they were looking for more intangible qualities - such as the ability to work together in teams - in their future employees, and hoped the schools could help.
``There's a need for (better) interpersonal skills,'' said Ann Binnie, personnel specialist for the city of Chesapeake, which employs more people than any business or organization in the city.
Binnie said that when she went to high school, interpersonal skills, particularly skills needed to work together in teams, weren't stressed. Instead students were encouraged to work alone.
``It was, `You do your own work. Look on your own paper,' '' Binnie said.
Bray said that whatever businesses were looking for, the Academic Tech Prep program could provide them with employees who better fit the bill.
``You've got to have an employee who can perform collateral duties, who can take on additional things. That's going to be your tech prep student,'' said Bray. ``We're going to produce a better product because we know what you need.'' MEMO: Staff writer Meredith Cohn contributed to this story.