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Tuesday, April 09, 2002

By Don Hammonds, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Getting young Pittsburghers ready to meet the technological future is a daunting task.

Using only one approach may not be enough, which is why the Pittsburgh Technology Council has been involved in three different programs with one common goal: training and preparing the work force to meet the challenge of technology.

	Ashley Simon, left, a junior from Bloomfield, works on a computer, while Janina Samuels, a sophomore from Mount Washington, works with a microprocessor on a robot built with Legos. Both girls study in the Schenley Technological Studies magnet program. (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette)

One program is a partnership with Schenley High School. Another is aimed at making students technologically literate. The focus of the third, Manufacturing Pathway Initiative, is to prepare students for the next generation of manufacturing growth.

The Schenley Technological Studies magnet program is the "granddaddy" of the three, celebrating its 15th anniversary this year.

The program gives students a head start on technological careers by offering them options to study robotic technologies, digital logic, computer applications, technical writing and drawing, along with the more typical and advanced academic courses required for graduation.

There's evidence that the program is a success -- more than 90 percent of the school's technology graduates have continued their education either in college, technical school or in the armed forces, and 50 percent of the program's graduates matriculated to Pittsburgh-based colleges and universities.

The program recognizes the importance of making sure its academic offerings match the needs of technology companies in Pittsburgh.

For that reason, local companies are offered tours of the school and program so that they can make suggestions on improving course work and training.

Software development firms and other local companies also hold meetings at Schenley to expose students to developments in technology.

A big challenge for the Schenley program is a familiar one: persuading young adults that Pittsburgh would be a good place to start their careers.

"Many of our graduates are not in Pittsburgh," said Jackie Perhach, program manager for the Schenley technological studies magnet. "One young lady last year said that she wasn't planning to be here more than two or three years. She can't even say why she feels that way. She just doesn't want to be here."

"We really need to do a better job of establishing ties between local companies and students while they are in high school," said Jeanne Berdik, vice president of work force education for the technology council. "They need to feel connected to businesses here in Pittsburgh.

"If they head off to college and that hasn't been done, it's too late. They're far more likely not to come back."

If they are going to stay in the area, it's important for students to be technologically literate, and that's where the council's Technology Literacy program comes in.

It doesn't matter what kind of career students plan to pursue in the future -- they will need to be technologically literate, said Jane Heiple, project manager for industry education initiatives for the technology council.

That means knowing all about word processing, how to use a computer spreadsheet and how to retrieve information from a database.

It also means being able to do power-point presentations and conducting research on the Internet, as well as using graphics software to tell a story or make case, and creating a Web page, Heiple said.

For teachers, it means making sure they have what they need to get those skills across.

"We need to provide continuous professional development activities that will keep our teachers current with the necessary information technology skills," Heiple said.

The goals of the program include increasing the number of teachers who can integrate information technology basic skills into their K-12 curriculum; improving the quality of teacher preparation for informational technology courses through professional development; and creating mechanisms through which curriculum constantly can be changed to meet the needs of information technology and related industries.

A pilot project is under way at South Side School District in Beaver County.

	Students in the robotics class in the Schenley Technological Studies magnet program work with their robots in a game of "Bot Ball." (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette)

Once students finish programs such as the Schenley offering or the Technology Literacy Initiative, where will they work? If the Pittsburgh Technology Council has its way, manufacturing would be on a short list of places those students will look for employment.

To help them move in that direction, the technology council and Catalyst Connection, formerly the Southwestern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center are expanding the Manufacturing Pathways Initiative.

The program, which is aimed at providing a pipeline/pathway for direct entry into high skilled manufacturing jobs or post-secondary manufacturing and engineering programs, has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to expand it services into Allegheny, Washington, Green and Fayette counties.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to connecting job-ready students and a good manufacturing position is the negative attitude that many parents have toward those jobs, officials said.

Pittsburgh's history has its share of complexities in that regard. Many families, having gone through the wrenching restructuring and near demise of the steel industry, want to steer their children away from manufacturing-related careers.

They fear that their children may go through the same painful experiences they had during Pittsburgh's massive economic changes, and they believe manufacturing jobs are dirty, outmoded positions that lead nowhere.

But working conditions in many manufacturing jobs have changed dramatically, and now one needs technical skills for factory jobs, council officials said.

The need to re-educate students, their families and the region as a whole about today's manufacturing industries led to the creation of the initiatives program, and thus far, the Westmoreland County-based program has generated positive results.

Twenty-one students, male and female finished the first year of the program, and 10 employers, including such firms as Sony Corporation of America, Kennametal, Inc., Respironics, Inc. and Precision Defense Systems provided 21 internships.

Students were paid above minimum wage for both classroom and work-site training.