CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — This fall, Harrison County Schools may have new curriculum in place, focused on the region’s aerospace industry.
The Harrison County Board of Education, along with representatives of local aerospace companies, held a roundtable last week to discuss developing technical education courses aimed at preparing students for careers in the aerospace industry.
“We’re in the process literally right now of assessing the curriculum, but we want it to fit the needs of the industry, not our needs,” Superintendent Dr. Mark Manchin said. “We have a smaller group of people who are working with us as we start drafting other curriculums.”
While the Board does have a base for the curriculum, Manchin said they’re working with industry leaders to assure graduates who take the courses are educated in the best areas.
“They’re a very competitive market, and we want to make sure the students we’re giving them meet their needs,” he said. “So we’re working closely with the industry and hopefully we’ll have everything finalized, we envision this coming fall.”
The classes will be held in a facility at Bridgeport High School, but will be offered for all students county-wide.
“We will bus those students if necessary. We already have 80 students who we’ve identified as interested even at Bridgeport High School, but we intend to take this county wide and expand this,” Manchin said.
This summer will be dedicated to finalizing the course load and hiring the necessary instructors, whether from within the school system or from the private sector.
Manchin said he views the addition as a pilot program that could potentially grow into other industry sectors in the years to come.
“We have to look outside the box today. No longer is it the heavy industrial that many of our parents and grandparents had to look forward to,” he said. “Now it’s a more technology based-industry, it’s the aerospace industry, it’s the oil and gas industry, and it’s much more sophisticated than perhaps it was years and years ago.”
Because those industries are more technology-based, Manchin said getting licensure or certification is critical.
“I think what we’re doing is laying the ground work not only for the aerospace industry, but also the oil and gas industry and there’s a number of industries that we believe that we could start a program similar to this and prepare our students early,” he said. “This is obviously right now the aerospace industry, but we’ve already been discussing and talking about broadening our scope to the oil and gas industry and other industries here in North Central West Virginia.”
It makes sense for Harrison County to serve as ground zero for such a project, with each of those industries booming in North Central West Virginia.
“I think we’re the model and we’re the engine for the state of West Virginia here in North Central West Virginia for preparing our students and getting a skilled workforce ready one year out of high school, directly out of high school, or at the most two years out of high school, be prepared to go directly and be a productive citizen where they can get a good-paying job where they can enjoy the lifestyle which they deserve after working so hard,” Manchin said.
Manchin said when he was growing up, students were told to go to college to be successful, and while that is still true to some extent, there are other avenues.
“More and more we’re finding that 60 to 70 percent of our students aren’t even necessarily going onto four-year institutions, colleges or professional degrees. Many are opting to go directly into the world of work or going into post-secondary to get a license or certification so they can go into the world of work after one or two years,” he said.
And he feels it’s the school systems job to assure those students are prepared for any avenue they choose.
“We must recognize that education in of itself is not that important. It’s education that actually leads to a better life, and that’s how we approach education here in Harrison County and I have philosophically over the years,” Manchin said. “It’s preparing our young boys and girls for the future, and we believe what we’re doing now with creating this new curriculum course and an agreement between many in the industry who are hiring — they’re looking to hire right now.”
Manchin compares today’s aerospace industry to the coal industry in southern West Virginia 50 years ago.
“For everybody, that was the profession. The aerospace industry now is a large employer. There are a number of companies here in Harrison County and North Central West Virginia,” he said. “So what we’ve tried to do is to bring everybody together, sit down, prepare a curriculum, and prepare those students who want to go directly from high school to a high paying job, and we’re talking entry jobs $16 to $22/hour, $35,000 to $45,000 a year.”
In the changing economy of the 21st Century, those high paying jobs no longer mean heavy industry jobs, Manchin said.
“Artificial intelligence, technology sector, has really grown. We need to really focus,” he said. “Give our kids the core subjects that really start focusing early in their schooling that prepare them for the job market. That’s what education is all about. It’s the preparation for the future.”