The changing face of technical education

After graduating from high school in 2008, Kristina Palermino  worked as a medical assistant at a health clinic, but soon realized  she would rather work behind the scenes in a laboratory. After researching clinical lab degree programs, she found a new career direction at Gwinnett Technical College.

Today Palermino is halfway through an associate degree program in bioscience technology.

“I wanted a degree with versatility, and this is it,” she said. “There are many biotech industries in Georgia, so I could take my skills into the agricultural, health sciences, forensic or environmental sectors.”

The hands-on curriculum is challenging, and Palermino values learning from instructors with different specialties (plants, proteins, chemistry) and work backgrounds.

“All of the instructors are geared toward work force development and teaching you the things you’ll really need to know. Every day they’re helping you to think about your future,” she said.

Palermino’s goal is a job in a pharmaceutical research and development lab, but she’s also considering continuing her education first. An articulation agreement with Southern Polytechnic State University allows her to earn a bachelor’s degree in the field.

“In either case, I feel that I’m moving in the right direction now. With this degree, I have lots of options,” she said.

In response to the state’s economic development plan to attract companies in the industry, Gwinnett Tech launched a bioscience technology degree program in 2007.

“Workers in this field need knowledge of science, laboratory techniques, specialized equipment and regulated environments. They have to be able to think critically,” said Phil Gibson, director of the school’s bioscience technology program. “When deciding where to locate, companies can predict land costs and other factors, but the big unknown is whether there will be a quality work force available. We didn’t have that emerging work force, but we are training them now.”

Gibson believes that Baxter International’s decision last year to locate a $1 billion biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Covington was influenced by the Technical College System of Georgia’s ability to build a long-term pipeline of skilled workers.

“We are preparing lab scientists to work in a broad swath of industries, including medical research, forensics, blood banking, environmental protection, water and soil management, green manufacturing and animal food products. Our graduates are working all over the state,” he said.

Visitors are often surprised by Gwinnett Tech’s state-of-the-art science facility. Calling it the best in the Southeast, Gibson says it allows the school to deliver hands-on training that others can’t offer. He expects it will help attract other bioscience companies to Georgia.

'Not your daddy’s tech school’

Bioscience technology is just one example of how dramatically technical education has changed in Georgia.

“Today’s technical college system is not your daddy’s tech school,” Gibson said.

It's an unrealized asset, said Ronald Jackson, commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia.

“We still find people who have the old image of technical education as vocational shop or training for the manual trades,” Jackson said. “It still suffers from the perception that it is for people who aren’t quite as bright or academically driven.”

However, high school counselors and students are beginning to see that not all high-paying careers are driven by four-year degrees. The recession also opened the eyes of many adults who realized they would have trouble getting a good job without new skills.

“Technology is embedded into every industry today, requiring workers to have more training and education,” Jackson said. “Technical education offers a pathway into most careers, as well as to higher degrees.”

The 25 technical colleges in the system are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, or the Council on Occupational Education. The system offers almost 600 degree, diploma and certificate of credit programs that prepare students with skills that translate into the work force.

Technical colleges have always trained plumbers, welders, electricians and auto technicians, but now they also prepare students for careers in business, computers, bioscience, nursing, engineering technology, criminal justice and early childhood education, to name a few.

“About 40 percent of our enrollment is in health care,” Jackson said. “We train as many nurses as the university system and private institutions, and the majority of allied health specialists — radiology technicians, dental assistants and respiratory therapists, etc. — come through the technical system.

“The technical college system is critical to the aviation, logistics and manufacturing industries.”

Technical schools also trains chefs, horticulturalists and video game developers.

“People are surprised to find that we have an underwater welding program in Americus where 100 percent of our graduates are hired immediately; that we have the only public funeral service education degree (in Statesboro); and a bioscience technology program in Gwinnett,” Jackson said. “And we’re training skilled workers to run the robots and computers necessary for advanced manufacturing processes.”

With input from local advisory groups from business and industry, technical colleges adapt their curricula quickly to meet changing market standards and demands. Creating health information technology programs quickly to meet the fast-growing health information technology field is one example.

“We’re the only system that guarantees that if graduates can’t do the job, we’ll retrain them for free,” Jackson said. “In 2011, 34,191 students graduated from the technical college system; 90 percent got jobs and only 33 students came back for retraining.”