Work-force training gets boost

The Sno-Isle Skills Center will get a $26 million renovation and expansion as part of a renewed commitment by the state to work-force training.

Six new programs, including training in aircraft mechanics, bio-tech lab work and low-voltage electrical installation, will be added to course offerings designed to introduce high-school juniors and seniors in Snohomish County to a range of trades and career opportunities.

The Sno-Isle expansion is part of a $72 million statewide capital investment approved by the 2007 Legislature to upgrade the state's 10 regional skills centers and help them meet emerging work-force needs.

"The state's awakening to the fact that not everybody is going on to a four-year college," said Frank Cox, dean of Workforce Development at Everett Community College and a member of Sno-Isle's advisory board. "Employers need a supply chain of skilled labor, and students need to be able to explore careers and see how what they're learning might relate to life and work."

But the state's push to better align the skills centers with apprenticeships, community-college programs and career opportunities in high-demand occupations comes at the same time increased academic standards are keeping some students away.

Enrollment at Sno-Isle dropped about 9 percent this year to 832, down from 918 in September 2006, said Director Steve Burch. He said more students are remaining at their high schools to take the additional math courses required of students who don't pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

"With the push for academic excellence, career and technical education is getting squeezed," Burch said.

The 2008 Legislature hopes to address the problem by encouraging school districts to recognize the academic content of skills-center classes.

Burch said that 13 out of 19 courses at Sno-Isle have the math content to meet the state graduation requirement. But currently, county high schools award the credit only on a student-by-student basis, he said.

Burch argues that the applied math used in skills-center courses such as machining and electronics is often more accessible and interesting to students than traditional classroom math because they can see an immediate application.

"We can help kids meet these higher academic standards, but we have to have access to the kids," he said.

John Aultman, assistant superintendent for career and college readiness at the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), said some skills centers in the state have boosted enrollment by adding math classes to their career and technical offerings.

He said some skills centers also have successfully negotiated with member school districts to have course credit awarded, instead of students having to petition their individual high schools.

OSPI is asking the Legislature for $19 million to improve the quality and rigor of career and technical education, to improve the links to community colleges and apprentice programs, and to support school districts as they review the academic content of skills-center courses.

The state also wants to add training for skills-center teachers so they can earn endorsements in academic subjects such as math.

At Sno-Isle, which is based in the Mukilteo School District but serves all of Snohomish County, the planned expansion will mean new classrooms, labs and shop areas and the ability to serve up to 1,200 students.

The current campus, at 9001 Airport Road in Everett, is made up of concrete buildings with a few narrow windows and hasn't been renovated since the center opened in 1978. Three portables housing programs in criminal justice and in fashion and merchandising will be replaced by permanent facilities.

Preliminary work will begin in the summer, with most of the new construction starting a year from now.

Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, said that after focusing for a decade on college-bound students, the state is recognizing the need to serve those who want to pursue trades and technical careers, a group, he argues, that is likely in the majority.

He said the need for well-trained workers in the coming years will be tremendous as the state's blue-collar work force reaches retirement age.

And with wages in many trades and technical fields above $30 an hour, he said, and their increasing use of computers and technology, there should be no stigma to choosing these careers.

"You have to be smart to do these jobs. We need to gear up the education system to train these kids," Hobbs said.

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com