The Build Dakota Scholarship is now open to applicants! (Just be careful when you click: when I opened the new site, welding sparks flashed all over the place.) The scholarship board has decided to spend $25 million of T. Denny Sanford's money and $25 million of our money to subsidize vo-tech degrees in the following eight industry areas:
- automotive
- building trades/construction
- energy technicians
- engineering technicians
- licensed practical nursing
- medical lab technicians
- precision manufacturing
- welding
(Two points off for lack of parallelism... but that's one of those liberal arts concepts Governor Daugaard says aren't worth our time....)
The BSD Eligible Programs List breaks those critical job fields down to specific degree/diploma programs at Southeast, Lake Area, Mitchell, and Western Dakota. But wait, no counseling? I hear counseling is critical job skill for all sorts of workers:
When state Rep. Lynne DiSanto was attending Chadron State College in Nebraska years ago, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in counseling, she never knew how those studies would impact the rest of her life.
Today, just a few weeks into her first term as a state legislator, DiSanto now knows that her college preparation has proven invaluable.
“That type of degree in counseling is never wasted, especially in the business world,” said the 38-year-old mother of three from Rapid Valley. “The things you learn about relating to people and understanding people has definitely helped me in the Legislature. It’s critical to understand what’s important to people, including your constituents of course, but your other legislators as well,” DiSanto added. “You learn to talk to people in a way that they understand and that makes sense to them” [Tom Griffith, "DiSanto Jumps into Lawmaking with Vigor in First Term," Rapid City Journal, 2015.02.15].
Empathy, understanding, communication skills... I don't know, Lynne. That all sounds pretty liberal artsy-fartsy to me. Almost downright philosophical. It's a good thing South Dakota's focusing on making good solid practical education free for welders and car fixers, not folks who sit around talking about feelings. Help Build South Dakota with practical jobs—apply today!
If there is a skill wingnuts are lacking in-it is relating to people,especially the less well off. OTOH if their heads get any closer to koch bros butts,they will be in violation of state sodomy laws.
To be fair, if my child told me they wanted a degree in english, sociology, communications studies, etc., I'd beg them to reconsider. I get your "building better people" ideology, but there's that pesky "You just acquired a ton of debt and are still unemployable" thing to think about. Just sayin.
What the hell is an energy technician? That sounds like something I would do.
It does sound like something you would do, Mr. Tim.
Good point Dicta. Finding employment in SD with those degrees would be difficult. However, In bigger cities and big businesses, people with a psychology/counseling background are in demand. I think some psychology classes would be good for all students, as Rep. DiSanto described.
twitter wapo.st/1FrPx6C "we dont need more STEM majors, we need more STEM majors with liberal arts training"
Dicta, I think one reason they are "unemployable" is that sometimes people do not allow them to make a case for just how much degrees in liberal arts/social sciences can contribute. I will admit that I think higher ed. and specific disciplines often fail to prepare students to adequately articulate this on materials like cover letters and resumes, but that does not necessarily mean that the students are wasting a degree. Moreover, it does not justify glib dismissals by those with liberal arts degrees like Daugaard and some in his administration.
There are questions that the liberal arts can help STEM fields address to help maximize success (and sometimes even profit). Here is a recent article that summarizes that we need not separate STEM & liberal arts, and how doing so is counter-productive (http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/stem-training-is-great-but-innovation-requires-the-liberal-arts-too-1.9952195). Note that the author emphasizes that lack of social science/liberal arts training can reduce scientists' ability to communicate effectively.
A liberal arts or social science degree is excellent preparation for grad school or law school. English majors often do quite well in post graduate fields as they are typically excellent writers and thinkers.
bcb-somewhere between English Major and Law school these fine writers lose all respect for the English language and start speaking in tongues.
mfi - some do, but today they are usually taught that obfuscation is an unsuccessful approach.