Donald Trump will inject $3 billion into plans for vocational and technical schools, and bipartisan support for vocational and technical education should be translated into action. President Donald Trump recently endorsed a grand plan to invest an extra $3BN in vocational and technical schools and suggested that the money be siphoned off from the Science and medical research funds allocated to Harvard. While the move may be challenged in court, it should not diminish the value of the plan or its strong bipartisan appeal in the US.
The number of new vocational students has grown by 20% in five years
To be clear, the government’s battle with Harvard and other Ivy League is not a good one. Many aspects of these schools can be criticised, not least their failure to combat antisemitism in recent years, but that should not affect the US government’s allocation of research budgets to important academic institutions. That said, if the president wants a chance to unite Republicans and Democrats, he should increase support for vocational and technical education.
In recent years, more and more young Americans have chosen to attend vocational education schools. Since 2020, enrolment at such institutions has grown by about 20 per cent. A high-quality vocational education program can lead to high-paying jobs for students, but it can also free students from the large amount of debt that a four-year undergraduate program can entail. The appeal of these VTE programs is likely to grow rapidly as artificial intelligence expands into more knowledge-based work.
Vocational education should be closely integrated with the market
Yet too many vocational education programmes are out of step with the times and out of step with the job market, wasting taxpayer money and depriving students of opportunities. Community Colleges and high schools face similar dilemmas. At a time when the United States continues to need more mechanics, plumbers and welders, and when job openings are opening up in industries traditionally overlooked by vocational colleges, these include areas such as health care, cutting-edge manufacturing, renewable energy and information technology.
Combining vocational training with job market trends can bring significant benefits to businesses, consumers and the US labour market, enabling them to enjoy higher wages and greater mobility. Achieving this integration will require reforms in several key areas. First, curriculum projects need to be more relevant to business and its needs. To equip students with the skills to find work immediately after graduation, education and business leaders should work together, and charities should help.
Second, the federal government could do more to encourage state and local governments to invest in such projects. Under bipartisan leadership, many states and cities are taking the lead. Local Governments should provide more funding to support the creation and replication of projects based on data-driven research that deliver the best employment and income outcomes.
More apprenticeship schemes are needed
Congress should give employers incentives to set up more apprenticeships. That could be done, as some states are doing, with modest employer tax credits or wage subsidies.
One of the key challenges for vocational education is the lack of qualified teachers, as these professionals are paid much more for their jobs than for teaching. The government could streamline the part-time teaching process by relaxing teacher qualification requirements, allowing more experienced professionals, including older workers interested in teaching, to enter the field, enabling skilled professionals to maintain external employment and providing bonuses or higher salaries for the best-performing teachers help to expand the talent pool.
As for the government, Education Secretary Linda mcmahon said at the confirmation hearing that she supports vocational schools, and she should insist that the department of education-funded research on education programs be avoided, these studies help determine the most effective project design and avoid wasting taxpayers’ money.
The more government support there is for technical schools, the more important is reliable data and research to point them in the right direction. The expansion of vocational and technical education offers an excellent opportunity to show that Republicans and Democrats in the United States can agree on a major domestic policy issue. (translated by Wang Jianguo)