By Stephen Cook
As the demand for technology related jobs increases, schools and students aren’t keeping up, both in quantity and quality, according to Jeff Melcher, Kansas Senator (R) and CEO of Accutype Medical Services.
Melcher is currently discussing the creation of a new program as a possibility to get students in the area more prepared and qualified to enter jobs in the technology and industrial-related fields. Many local entities would have to cooperate toward this goal.
While in high school, students could apply to be in the program. When accepted, they can then begin taking courses during their junior and senior years of high school that would essentially also count as the freshman and sophomore years at college. Upon graduation from high school, students would then have a high school diploma as well as an associate degree from JCCC.
During those two years in high school, students would also have a corporate sponsor that would pay a $2,000 fee for tuition as well as a paid internship through that company.
Melcher said there is a high number of unfilled technology jobs in Kansas City, and many graduates aren’t very well-prepared to fill those positions.
“It’s just more and more difficult to find qualified talent,” Melcher said. “The problem is that there’re not only enough people with the skill set, but those that do have the skill set really aren’t all that well qualified.”
Chip Cody, chair and full-time professor of electronics has been at the college since 2001 and has seen enrollment in the overall industrial technology programs increase slightly during the recent years.
Cody said he gets both students fresh out of high school as well as non-traditional students that are looking to upgrade their skills for a better job. Some students experience difficulty though.
“We have a fairly high drop rate,” Cody said. “I think they get here and they realize perhaps it’s a little harder than they thought, and it isn’t just the fun stuff of electronics, there’s some math involved and things like that.”
Cody said he has been getting more and more calls from companies coming to him asking him to recommend employees, seeking possible workers.
One of the reasons Cody believes there is a shortage is due to the lack of women in the field.
“Half of our market does not exist,” Cody said. “I would love to have young women more in this program.”
Cody believes that more presence and increased visibility of the college’s programs in high schools would help to bring in more students who are interested in the field.
“I would like to see more promotion,” Cody said. “Get more people understanding all the things we do here.”
Melcher first realized the scope of the issue a couple of years ago while working together with a group of local business leaders during the Google Fiber announcement for Kansas City. Out of the group came a greater realization about the local workforce.
“What we discovered is all that of these companies had a similar problem and that was they couldn’t find the talent that they needed and the numbers to be able to grow their companies,” Melcher said.
Having always been interested in education, Melcher wanted to figure out a way to do something about the problem.
Ultimately, this program will also allow for greater earnings, according to Melcher, since they will already have two more years of experience under their belts. After graduating from high school, students could either jump right into the workforce or decide to attend a university, such as the local KU Edwards Campus, to complete their bachelor’s degree.
Working with local institutions would allow students to get all of their education locally, allowing them to live at home and work as they please, according to Melcher.
“That’s a lot of coordination,” college president Joe Sopcich said. “But at the end of the day it’s worth it for the student who can benefit from that quick progression of going to school, getting credit, and getting a job.”
Melcher believes one of the reasons young people aren’t excited about math and science is because they had a poor learning experience during their K – 12 years. A way to help solve this is to ensure there are better educators in those fields, rewarding those that are most effective – more funding won’t improve the situation, according to Melcher.
Additionally, Melcher believes there is a misunderstanding of the importance of the field.
“I don’t think the general public realizes, number one, how many technology jobs are out there and secondly, I think they kind of mis-characterize those as being the guys with the thick glasses and ponytails that nobody wants to talk to,” Melcher said. “You’re going to find that these are really sharp people, they’re fun people, they’re not just the guys that you slide a pizza under the door and you never talk to.”
Since these individuals are in “extraordinarily high demand,” that drives compensation up, and it’s not unusual to find workers making over $100,000 a year within the first several years of employment, according to Melcher.
The timeline for the program isn’t currently developed, as many different parties and entities must be on board before the project can move forward, he said. High schools, community colleges, universities as well as state governing bodies will have to work together and discover what barriers there might be and what legislative changes might need to be made.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen overnight,” Melcher said. “But what I hope to be is the catalyst to keep this thing moving, because it’s real easy to have great ideas that just fall by the wayside; that happens far too often. We’ve got to have people that are driving the process to keep it moving forward.”
Contact Stephen Cook, editor-in-chief, at scook35@jccc.edu.