Utah lags in preparing workers for future

Utah's higher education officials should be commended for sounding the alarm on the need to prepare our students for tomorrow's yet-to-be-created jobs. China gets it; India gets it; Wyoming gets it. They seem to have made public education a priority with their resources, while Utah has had to rely on hype and public relations.

Utah's college enrollment and potential recruitment pool of students are declining. Now, higher education officials are offering middle-school students a confusing "smorgasbord" of incentives. But the problem is not a recruitment problem; it is structural and hampered by political and bureaucratic turf roadblocks. Utah is operating with a fragmented and outdated education, employment, training and higher-education set of subsystems that were created in isolation and are now unable to deliver the quality work force needed for today's changing economy.

It is inefficient and costly, and students, taxpayers and employers become the losers. Education policymakers operate their separate systems and have to rely on the good will of their counterparts to "collaborate and coordinate" to make it work. Legislators and administrators all talk about the silver bullet — coordination. Yet, coordination is a myth and cannot be left to agencies because of the fundamental conflict over roles. As far back as 1992, the legislative auditor noted, "Because of these conflicts, agencies are more concerned about protecting their agency's independence," which is endemic to all government bureaucracies, including public education, employment services and higher education. Someone has to assure coordination takes place.

Higher education can't solve the problem of its decreasing enrollment by a scattered approach of student incentives and advertising campaigns. If it is serious about motivating and challenging students to aspire for higher education, it should invest directly in the teachers who (along with parents) are best able to create the most important motivator — the love of learning.

Instead of investing in the usual recruitment public relations plans, the system's colleges and universities could instead allow their faculty to volunteer in middle schools as teaching assistants in the classrooms for the full school year, as well as providing work-based learning in the higher education setting, tied in with class-based learning. The K-12 policymakers should make the school-to-work program a priority again. College and university campuses are minicities rich with job exploration that middle school students can experience. Learning experiences are limited only by higher education's imagination and the will to make it happen. That's commitment. That's coordination.