Sen. Gillibrand will be in Albion on Monday to promote vocational education
ALBION – U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will be in Albion on Monday to visit Charles D’Amico High School to announce her bipartisan legislation, the 21st Century Strengthening Hands On Programs that Cultivate Learning Approaches for Successful Students Act.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
This bill would direct federal funding to high-tech training and education programs in high schools and institutions of higher education, which would give more students the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to get good-paying jobs in the high-tech manufacturing sector. U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) is a cosponsor of this bill.
Technologies like 3D printers, laser cutters, and computerized machine tools are transforming American manufacturing and increasing the need for specialized training for manufacturing jobs, Gillibrand said.
To prepare our students with the skills needed for high-tech jobs, this legislation would amend the Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act to give greater priority to funding maker education, the development of makerspaces, and training for teachers in the application of maker education.
Career and Technical Education programs at the high school and community college level provide training and education for in-demand, good-paying jobs in a variety of industries from manufacturing to health care to computer programming. There were an estimated 377,000 students enrolled in CTE high school and post-secondary programs in New York State from 2015 to 2016. During this same period, close to 500 high school students in Orleans County participated in career and technical education, according to Gillibrand’s office.
This investment in vocational education would give more students the technical skills needed for good-paying jobs, offering hands-on learning experiences for students to use high-tech industrial tools to create and innovate, Gillibrand said. This approach to technical education will offer more opportunities to inspire the next generation of manufacturing workers and entrepreneurs.
