Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a nonprofit organization, offers high schools free, advanced technology and engineering education curricula

Replacing Woodshop

Do you remember when high schools taught woodshop? Your kids won’t.

Technology education based on current, industry-driven curricula is rapidly replacing traditional industrial arts in public schools, and one big reason for the shift is a growing worldwide deficit of technology workers.

The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that the global economy will be short 15 million technical workers by 2020.

Confronting the Shortage

Project Lead The Way (PLTW)http://www.pltw.org/ , a nonprofit organization, offers high schools free, advanced technology and engineering education curricula to combat a forecasted shortage of workers in these industries. The program started in 12 New York state high schools in the 1997/1998 school year, and is currently used in more than 1,300 schools in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Patrick Leaveck, regional Midwest director of PLTW, said industrial arts lost educational priority because they didn’t directly impact the global economy or the domestic shortage of technology workers.

"Taking [traditional] industrial arts courses will not solve that problem, so we have to have courses that are both rigorous and relevant," Leaveck said, adding that PLTW courses count as college credits.

By Andy Opsahl

Full Story: http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=98994