High School Engineers
August, 2022
A High School Curriculum For Producing Civil Engineering Technicians
Not all civil engineering tasks require a four year degree. Many of the engineer’s skills can be learned on the job. The Bachelors Degree just provides the scaffolding.
Well, what if you could provide the right education, in high school, to give the graduate a lightweight version of the four year degree. Many British Colonial countries already do this in their education system.
In Caribbean high schools, which run for five years, students pick classes after their second year which will be studied for the last three years of schooling. After that students can elect for a final year (sixth year) of study to deepen their knowledge in preparation of entering the work force.
So, for an eight class schedule you can have these courses:
- English Language
- Mathematics
- Foreign Language
- Physics
- Technical Drafting
- Electronics
- Geography
- Physical Education
This is the schedule I had growing up in Trinidad. I knew I wanted to be an engineer early in life so I chose classes towards that goal at 13 years old.
Through a combination of this curriculum, one final year of CAD training and on-the-job learning the industry could meet its talent goals in ways other than relying on the university pipeline to catch-up or attract STEM students.
At the same time we’d be providing a high quality job to a student who may not want to pursue a four year degree. When you look at the AEC Industry talent needs, across the board it’s in the 0 to 10 year experience range. But 5 years ago there was probably the same need. Maybe we need to start thinking about the problem in a more original way to get better solutions.