Miller City-New Cleveland senior Liz Otto demonstrates an anatomage table provided to her school’s biomedical career tech program by Mercy Health. This technology helps her learn a great deal about anatomy as well as patient treatment.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
MILLER CITY — Career and technical education is growing in demand in schools throughout the region and the state. On Friday, officials from the county, state and federal level gathered at Miller City-New Cleveland School to learn more about the efforts in this northern Putnam County village to provide that to students.
U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, and Ohio Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, R-Paulding, joined representatives from Lt. Gov. Jon Husted’s office, the Ohio Manufacturer’s Association, the Putnam County Community Improvement Corporation as well as area businesses to see the strides the school has made in promoting job skills training. The school has training in agribusiness, biomedical and engineering, and according to superintendent Kerry Johnson, these programs have exploded in popularity, with nearly every high school student participating in one or more of these programs.
“We’ve had our agribusiness since 1962, and we’ve had our biomedical and engineering [programs] since about 2003,” he said. “We feel very special in that we can have these three in-house programs and that they’re flourishing.”
Seeing the emphasis that the school has placed on career education was encouraging for Latta, who sees a stark need for workers in his district.
“There are 75,000 manufacturing jobs in my district, and I don’t care where I’m at, whether it is here in Miller City or all the way in Lorain, on the other side of the district, I hear the same thing: ‘We can’t find people to work,’” he said. “They can’t find people to fill the specific jobs they need.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that Ohio has 71 available workers for every 100 open jobs.
Klopfenstein was gratified to see the interest the students were showing in these various fields as he and the rest of the visitors toured the various programs to learn more about what students are gleaning from them.
“Miller City is doing an excellent job of creating interest for young people and giving them opportunities to develop their skills and see what they want to do later in life,” he said. “Everything about the program just screams success.”
The economic development impacts for Putnam County are enormous as schools help provide students with skills area businesses are seeking, according to Putnam County CIC director Amy Sealts.
“As we’re retaining new companies and attracting new companies, we have to keep making those business and education connections so we’re continuing to put youth and adults in the pipeline for the jobs that are here so there’s not a disconnect between what jobs are here and what we’re training people for,” she said.
“It’s about raising awareness among the students and the parents that they don’t necessarily have to go to college,” Putnam County Workforce Development Director Karl Schimmoeller said. “There are a lot of fantastic companies here.”
Participating student also appreciate the chance to get ahead in their training while in high school to either reduce or eliminate the costs associated with post-secondary education. Liz Otto, a senior in the biomedical program, said her experience helped her choose her career path as an aspiring NICU nurse, and she appreciates the head start she has received.
“It’s just going to help me get ahead with all my [general education] courses whenever I get into school,” she said. “Nursing is a four-year program and I’ll have it knocked down to about three years.”
Reach Craig Kelly at 567-242-0391 or on Twitter @cmkelly419.
