Free Republic

Gulf Region South district A student practices his welding skills in one of the newly renovated shops at the Al Khaseeb Vocational Technical Center in Basrah. Students there can choose between a variety of classes including carpentry, electric installation, auto mechanics, air conditioning and refrigeration, masonry, painting, computer basics and plumbing installation. USACE photo by Norris Jones. BASRA — Students in Basra are now attending a newly refurbished vocational technical school as they acquire important job skills.The school’s headmaster, Mohammed Hassan Al Hassani, said he is very pleased with the $1.24 million rehabilitation of the Al Khaseeb Votech Center that...

Carpentry students at the al-Kut Vo-Tech center work on a project May 12. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel T. West. FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — Sixty students at the al-Kut vocational technical center graduated May 12 after a two-month course of instruction. The graduating classes included 40 students from a sewing class and 20 students from a computer-repair class.The Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team provided starter kits for the students at the graduation ceremony to assist them with their transition into the work force.“The kits are meant to minimize the requirements to start working,� said Capt. Caroline Pogge, of Danbury,...

President Bush (news - web sites) on Monday defended his record on the economy and the war in Iraq (news - web sites), appearing at a North Carolina college where he praised a partnership between local business leaders and the academic community. "Terrorists can't stand freedom," said Bush, declaring that he will "stay the course" and bring democracy to Iraq. "We're still being challenged in Iraq and the reason why is a free Iraq will be a major defeat in the cause of terror." The president said that in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, "I had a choice...

<p>President George W. Bush said schools must improve math and vocational training to prepare Americans for jobs in a changing economy, seeking to defuse Democratic rival John Kerry's comments that work being created pays less than jobs that vanished during Bush's presidency.</p>

Program will train Hispanic carpenters -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Peggy Kreimer Post staff reporter Home construction sites in Northern Kentucky usually ring with the sound of hammers and the lilt of Spanish as Hispanic workers become an ever larger part of the construction workforce. On Saturday, that particular symphony moves to Patton Vocational School in Edgewood, where the Home Builders Association of Northern Kentucky is holding its first Spanish-language training program for carpenters. Twenty Hispanic men and women will learn English skills for the first 90 minutes and basic carpentry skills with a Spanish interpreter for the other two-and-a-half hours. The...

<p>Trade schools once meant auto mechanic institutes and beauty schools.</p> <p>But specialty schools are opening at a record pace, fueled by dual forces of a lagging economy and demands for more technically savvy workers.</p> <p>In Arizona, more than 170,000 students enrolled in career-training programs last year, studying everything from guitarmaking to personal training to computer repair. That's a 58 percent increase from the previous year, and schools across the board are seeing influxes.</p>

With a few years of experience, an auto mechanic at a dealership can earn $80,000 a year. But high schools are eliminating auto shop classes, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. The equipment is costly, industrial tech (shop) teachers are hard to find and students' schedules are filled with college-prep classes. Students assume the only way to make a living is to go to college, but many don't have the motivation or the academic skills to earn a college degree. Only about half of students who enroll in college ever earn a degree; most of those who graduate won't be earning $80,000...

NEW YORK - Does teaching high school students how to clean a carburetor or decorate a cake give them valuable job skills or does it simply distract them from the study of algebraic equations and French verbs? The debate over the value of vocational education in America's public schools has been raging at least since 1917, when the federal government first began funding such classes. But it's likely to intensify this year as Congress moves to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 against the backdrop of the Bush administration's recommendation that such programs receive...