Macomb:

Kids learn computer networks

By Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

    WARREN — Vocational education in today’s high schools doesn’t mean wood shop anymore.

    Just ask Dale Dubay, career development director for the Southwest Macomb Technical Education Consortium. It’s his job to align some 20 programs in four school districts with the needs of students and the marketplace.

    “Why do some high schools still have wood shop class? Let’s trade that in for career-technical areas,” he said. “We’re changing with the times and purchasing equipment to train kids for the jobs that are out there.”

    That’s why the consortium opened the Cisco networking academy last year. Students in the course learn to design, build and maintain computer networks. Enrollment soared from 16 students last year to 44 this year.

    “There’s a shortage of more than 350,000 workers in the information technology areas,” Dubay said. “They’re screaming for people.”

    The health services field is also hot. About 80 students are in the consortium’s allied health program at Warren Woods Tower High School, where they begin preparation to be assistants to nurses, physical therapists, dentists and veterinarians, said teacher Domenica Rutkowski.

    “In the next few years, as we see health care continue to be a priority and we also see a shortage of nurses, the community will demand that we train more people who can go out there and function,” Rutkowski said.

    While some students go on to get premed and nursing degrees, “there are huge possibilities out there for professions that require two years of post-secondary training or less,” she said.

    Kelly Screws, a senior at Tower High School, said the program helped convince her to go into the health field. She’ll continue at Macomb Community College next year and she’s leaning toward physical therapy as a career.

    “If it wasn’t here I’d probably have to wait until college to take something like this,” she said.