One thing all stakeholders agree on: Massachusetts needs more spots for students who want to attend vocational-technical high schools, and employers in manufacturing, the trades, and health care need a more robust pipeline of qualified candidates.
Amid all the hubbub this summer over how voc-tech schools choose their students, the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators said up to 11,000 students annually are waiting for a spot at one of the 97 schools offering vocational education, which combined had 57,589 students enrolled in the 2024-2025 school year.
While the state figures out ways to create more seats at vocational-technical schools and in vocational programs at regular high schools, the Healey Administration over the summer changed the admissions process to a lottery system, where less weight is given to a student’s academic and disciplinary record. The lottery system – while far from perfect – is meant to help increase access for students who are not as academically inclined.
At their heart, vocational schools are meant to be places where students can obtain the skills – and perhaps the certification – necessary to enter a profession right out of high school. The schools can be ready partners for industry to develop the kind of training to support today’s needs, as WBJ Managing Editor Eric Casey writes in his story “Accessing a vocation”. The American education system for decades has focused on preparing students for college, and technical high schools are increasingly seen as stepping stones to college-educated careers in IT, biotechnology, and finance. One of the reasons for the state’s new lottery system is that of all the Worcester high schools, Worcester Technical High School had the highest percentage (61.1%) of students matriculating to college following the 2023-2024 school year, according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
How do we close that gap for students wanting to access technical training? Building more schools that offer technical training, be that a new technical high school, or like Worcester’s new Doherty High School, a regular high school with significant technical training facilities and programs, will take time. However, there are a number of technical training programs being offered to non-traditional students, like Worcester’s Night Life program, Fitchburg’s Monty Tech Monty Tech Continuing Ed program, Blackstone Valley Tech and the BV Hub for Workforce Development, just to name a few. The Technology Learning Center in Oxford is another example of a training resource helping prepare our workforce for today’s job opportunities.
Building more school-based facilities will take time, but all those students deserve the opportunity to access the kind of classes to prepare them for good-paying jobs requiring a four-year college degree. Expanding training resources by maximizing existing facilities and programs should be today’s priority.
This editorial is the opinion of the WBJ Editorial Board.
