NCRVE Home |
Site Search |
Product Search
IMPLICATIONS FOR POSTSECONDARY TECHNICAL EDUCATION
Expanding the role of postsecondary technical education to include a proactive
involvement in community economic development requires careful planning and a
clear definition of the intended goals. Based on events and experiences
described in case studies, the implications for postsecondary technical
education--as an agent to facilitate economic development--lie in six major
areas:
- Retool the traditional educational role to provide customized training
programs in close partnership with local industry with focus on new
competencies and skills required from both employers and employees by the
emerging high-performance workplace.
- Serve as an educational broker to government agencies to provide the
facilities, human resources, and the necessary linkages for students,
dislocated workers, and potential employers who benefit from a variety of
training programs.
- Develop entrepreneurial opportunities through education and training aimed
at facilitating the transition of interested individuals from school or work to
business ownership.
- Facilitate connecting activities between schools--both secondary and
postsecondary--and local businesses to expose young students to entrepreneurial
environments as another career path, and ease the transitional experiences of
those moving from school or work to business ownership.
- Foster economic development by supporting business incubation in the
community with a focus on entrepreneurial development through comprehensive
services rather than on just commercial space at low rates.
- Provide business- and industry-related services to assist newly and
already established enterprises, including consulting services, facilities,
equipment, and software to demonstrate improved processes and
technologies.
To administrators interested in implementing or improving
efforts on any of these opportunities described above, case studies illustrate
different scenarios in urban, suburban, and rural settings. A collective
understanding of the diverse circumstances and common contextual
characteristics may be more useful to develop a vision for one's efforts or to
identify opportunities for improved participation in community and
entrepreneurship development. As such, the final analysis and conclusions are
left open for the users to stimulate their own thinking in identifying a wide
variety of potential applications and to encourage technical education leaders
to develop a vision to foster economic and entrepreneurial development in the
community.
Those users interested in specific examples describing potential opportunities
in each of the six major areas previously outlined for two-year technical
colleges can review a complementary publication, Guidebook of Opportunities
for Two-year Technical Colleges, by Hernández-Gantes et al.
(1996b).
NCRVE Home |
Site Search |
Product Search