Worker shortages drive calls for high school curriculum changes [View all]
Even while operating at full bore, Athena Manufacturing in North Austin is quiet and pristine, defying the traditional crash-and-bang stereotype of metal machining and fabrication.
It is what much of Austin’s manufacturing looks and sounds like today. Advanced machinery producing precision products. A computer monitor at virtually every workstation. And a workforce with an increasingly advanced set of technical skills.
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“Our economy in Austin is in very short supply of people who can do the things we do,” said John Newman, Athena’s chief financial officer. “We’ve got middle-class jobs we can’t fill because the skill level is not there.”
Those concerns have come to the fore this year at the Texas Capitol, where a new statewide business coalition is pushing bills that would loosen high school graduation requirements and foster better career and technical training. The first of those bills, carried by Senate Education Committee Chairman Dan Patrick, R-Houston, is set to clear his committee on Tuesday.
More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/worker-shortages-drive-calls-for-high-school-curri/nWQ8t/ .
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