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September 25, 2006

Jack Healy of the MassMEP talks about the impact of the new Worcester Technical High School

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Jack Healy, Director of Operations at the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Though the technical skill shortage in Massachusetts remains a reality, we can now point to Worcester as a city that has gotten it right in addressing the skills issue with its sparkling new Technical High School that opened this month. This is the first new Vocational/Technical High School built in the Commonwealth in the last 25 years, and the only one to have had $90 million dollars invested in it. The result is a technical wonder, positioned with four separate academic disciplines and 24 learning centers, that will serve a student body of 1,500 young people.

In addition to the school's logistical ability, it emphasizes real world education, and its mission is for all of it's students to have an increasingly higher level of academics so as to ensure their preparedness for continuing education.  Currently more 70% of the school’s past student body has continued on to college and 96% of this past year’s seniors passed the State’s Standard MCAS exam. This was the highest percentage for an urban technical high school in the state.

The school's academic education supports a world class technical program, that integrates the real world and the classroom. The school’s four academies -- Construction, Allied Health, Design and Engineering, and Business & Information Technology -- are each organized into learning communities that connect theory to practice, allowing students to see the result of their work.

Classroom subjects and discipline learning centers are tied together.  For example, the math and English classes in the Design and Engineering Academy relate to lessons in CAD and Electromechanical courses.

This is why the word "vocational" was dropped from the school’s title. The
school teaches students in all aspects of an industry, not just specific job skills.

Check out the Manufacturing Action Newsline for a more detailed opinion of
the new Technical High School - www.massmac.org.

About the author

Jack Healy serves as the Director of Operations for both the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP) which is a program supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Manufacturing Advancement Center which is a separate 501c organization dedicated to the promotion and development of the Massachusetts Manufacturing community.

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