Task force probes career, technical ed

Career and technical education in Utah is being put under the scope of 11 legislators as they study various issues regarding how the programs are implemented in the state.

The interim task force is charged with making recommendations on the governance of the state's higher education and applied technology systems as well as their roles and mission statements.

"Every institution of higher education, whether they are an applied technology college or a college or university, is up for being looked at," said Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City, a member of the Higher Education and Applied Technology Governance Committee. He said the committee will not, however, examine the governance of larger institutions, but because they are players and offer career and technical education courses, "they will be involved in the discussion."

Various issues regarding Utah's technical training programs were addressed during this year's legislative session, including a potential merger between Salt Lake Community College and the Salt Lake-Tooele Applied Technology College and the roles and power of campus and the general Utah College of Applied Technology presidents. All of the proposed bills citing CTE in Utah went unresolved, resulting in the formation of the task force.

The SLCC-SLTATC merger option will be brought up by the committee, but will be a "by-product of our discussion," committee chairman and Senate Majority Leader Curtis S. Bramble, R-Provo, said.

"We have no preconceived pre-conceived notions in this committee," he said.

Since its founding following the 2001 Legislative session, UCAT has endured multiple changes in the written statute, which wasn't the intention of lawmakers who created the institution. The new committee hopes to clarify issues in order to prevent further changes in the school's organization and governance.

The Utah System of Higher Education serves nearly 120,000 students who participate in more than 66 million membership hours each year in credit and noncredit CTE courses.

Although technical education is concurrently offered at nine of the state's 10 public universities, Commissioner of Higher Education Dave Buhler said UCAT as its own body is very much a necessary and important institution to the system of higher education, as "its programs strive to meet work force needs in the state's business and industry."

Among other things, Buhler hopes the committee can design a technical associates degree program to replace the current associate of applied technology degree, which he says is "basically useless outside Utah."