There have been a few reports in the past couple weeks about Erie County Executive Mark DiVecchio’s desire to more forward on developing a community college for Erie County. He’s acting now in spite of an ongoing study being conducted that will not be completed until late October.  In true Carnac fashion, the CE says he already knows that the study will call for the development of a community college, and he just wants to be ready to go when it is released. He’s already picked out a location on prime real estate adjacent to Family First Sports Park in Summit Township, and he has his eye on a half-million dollars from the casino for “start-up costs.”

We’re talking about developing a brand-new educational institution here; we’re not baking cookies for this afternoon’s bake sale! What’s the rush? And why are we so sure that the dozen or so colleges, universities, business and technical schools we already have couldn’t handle this supposed lack of training that a few manufacturers are claiming? Are there underlying issues surrounding the disconnect between trained workers and open jobs?  It used to be that you were trained on the job as an apprentice before you became a master craftsman, but the decline of the unions has hurt that model. Could it be that today’s manufacturer is asking for high-skills without being willing to invest in training for those skills? Probably, but here’s a newsflash: I never hired an employee that I didn’t have to train, whether fresh out of college or years of experience. Perhaps there are some unreasonable expectations here on both the employer and potential employee side.

I won’t deny that our colleges are probably cranking out too many kids with degrees that keep them working in retail at the mall instead in their field. Perhaps more has to be done at the high school guidance level to encourage children into the trades: a welder most days will make much more money than a television broadcaster or even computer network manager in Erie. I’m just skeptical at the needs that right now seem anecdotal, and I’m suspicious at the rush to building and starting another program in the vein of CamTech and its predecessors.

If I’m wrong, I’d love to be set straight on this.