FYI
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
National Dissemination Center for
Career and Technical Education
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1090

For Immediate Release

Dr. James Jacobs, Director of the Center for Workforce Development and 
Policy, Macomb Community College, and Dr. Michael Rush, State 
Administrator, Idaho Division of Professional-Technical Education will 
present "The Importance of Three Skill Sets in Career and Technical 
Education: Technical, Employability, and Academic" during a webcast from 
the National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education, The 
Ohio State University, 3:00 p.m. EDT, September 15, 2004. You can view the 
webcast from any computer with Internet access at 
http://www.nccte.org/webcasts/description.asp?wc=119. If you cannot view 
the webcast live, you can view the archived webcast on the National 
Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education Web site at 
www.nccte.org.

Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Rush will engage in a discussion about the importance of 
three different skill sets: technical, employability, and academic skills 
in career and technical education in their institutions and agencies. Drs. 
Jacobs and Rush will focus on the relative benefit of technical and 
academic skills in modern career and technical education. They will suggest 
that much of the debate on the relative benefit of technical and academic 
skills in modern career and technical education is being rendered obsolete 
by the changes in skill content of the growing occupations in the economy.

In the past, the types of skills needed were often defined by the job 
title. Managers needed to be able to work in teams, use information, and 
solve problems; line workers needed to know how to perform the job tasks 
specific to their area; and academicians were relegated to higher education 
or research. However, in the knowledge economy these discrete skill sets 
have merged together to produce a synthesis which includes technical, 
academic and employability skills. This presents new challenges for how 
career and technical educators develop their curricula and their programs. 
The speakers in this webcast explore those changes, present information 
about the roles of technical, employability and academic skills in today's 
workplace, and highlight how those roles affect the way individuals are 
prepared for the workplace.

Dr. Jacobs specializes in the areas of occupational change and technology, 
suburban economic development, occupational education, retraining of 
displaced workers, and needs assessment of occupational programs. He is a 
national expert on workforce development and community colleges. Dr. Jacobs 
has been an advisor to a number of national foundations on workforce 
development policy. Currently, he is the President Elect of the National 
Council of Workforce Education (NCWE), a national postsecondary 
organization of occupational education and workforce development 
specialists. He served on the Advisory Board of the congressionally 
mandated National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE).

Dr. Rush is State Administrator of the Division of a state agency 
responsible for coordinating and funding secondary, college level and adult 
professional-technical education in Idaho. He taught high school 
agricultural education and has held faculty positions in teacher education 
at The Pennsylvania State University, Virginia Tech, and the University of 
Idaho. Dr. Rush has just completed a term as President of the National 
Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education. He 
recently authored a national publication defining the key principles of 
career-technical education.
Viewers of the webcast may ask questions of Drs. Jacobs and Rush by signing 
up (no charge) for a WebBoard Account at www.nccte.org. The chatroom allows 
you to submit questions during their presentation. Please allow ample time 
as your account must be validated by an email confirmation. Questions can 
be pre-submitted by linking to 
http://www.nccte.org/webcasts/description.asp?wc=119#viewWebcast.

To subscribe or unsubscribe from this e-mail list, please visit this web 
page: http://www.nccte.org/ctemail/subscription.asp or send an e-mail to 
nagy.8 at osu.edu or contact Barbara Reardon below.

The work reported herein was supported under the National Dissemination for 
Career and Technical Education, PR/Award (No.V051A990004) and/or under the 
National Research Center PR/Award (No.V51A990006) as administered by the 
Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U. S. Department of Education. 
However the contents do not necessarily represent the positions or policies 
of the Office of Vocational and Adult Education or the U.S. Department of 
Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. 
The National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education and 
the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education are funded 
by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U. S. Department of Education.

For Additional Information Contact:
Barbara Reardon
The Ohio State University
Director of Communications
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1090
Phone: 614-292-2894
Fax: 614-688-3258
Email: reardon.30 at osu.edu
Web site: www.nccte.org