MVCTC featured in "Dayton Daily News" Article from Saturday, January 10, 2015
Ohio is launching a plan to help adult high school dropouts earn a diploma and job training, with the Miami Valley Career Tech Center in Clayton serving as one of five hubs helping to build the program.
Roughly one in eight Ohioans over age 22 (1.1 million) does not have a high school diploma, according to the Ohio Department of Education, and state data says they are twice as likely to live in poverty as those with a diploma.
“As Ohio’s labor market grows, the key to our future success is connecting undereducated men and women to the education and training they need to rise above poverty and thrive,” said state school superintendent Richard Ross.
MVCTC competed for and won a $500,000 state planning grant to start structuring the Adult Diploma Pilot Program in Southwest Ohio. MVCTC Superintendent Nick Weldy said his school is working together with the Upper Valley, Great Oaks, Warren County and Butler County career tech centers on the regional project.
Similar $500,000 grants were given to technical schools or community colleges in Chillicothe, Cleveland, Canton and Toledo, with the goal of having such programs up and running in the 2015-16 school year. Weldy said funding for the actual implementation of the program has not been finalized, but he expects Gov. John Kasich to mention it in his budget recommendations early this year.
ODE spokesman John Charlton said the program stems in part from Kasich’s concern about the many jobs availablein Ohio without qualified workers to fill them.
Weldy said MVCTC already offers basic adult GED programs for Montgomery, Greene and Preble counties, but this one would be different on several fronts. Participants would earn a diploma, rather than a GED, but more significantly, they would receive training toward an approved job credential in a high-demand field at the same time.
Weldy said the program comes at a good time, because a recent overhaul of the GED exam, moving it online for the first time, has increased costs and decreased participation and passage rates.
During the planning process, MVCTC will determine how to contact potential students, assess academic challenges such as illiteracy, and work with industry leaders to determine the certifications needed for the most in-demand jobs. If the program is implemented next year, students would work at their own pace either in a classroom or online, under a personalized “student success plan.”
Weldy said the biggest hurdle to program success likely will be convincing those who have dropped out — some of whom have tried to earn a GED before — to give the new program a shot.
“My job is to get those adults back into the workforce,” Weldy said. “I think this is a great way to do that.”
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