Being able to compete against China's next generation of engineers requires action now

EDITOR:
Last year our congressmen, Tim Ryan, participated in a fact-finding trip to the People's Republic of China. While traveling through China, he observed the rapid economic growth that China is experiencing. He attributed one of the major factors for their growth to be China's graduation rate for engineers of about 700,000 annually. In the United States, we lag behind at about 70,000 graduates.
The emergence of China as a world power was the topic at the George P. Bickford lecture series focusing on Asia. The lecture was conducted under the guidance of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. The keynote speaker was Robert Lees, a noted China expert with extensive business and culture ties to China. His message was that China is maturing from a producer of low tech and apparel items to a manufacturer of value-added products (cars and aircraft components). We need to be ready for this competition by enhancing our efforts in the area of technical education.
The need for an educated workforce, not just engineers, is a key to the future success of our nation. In Ohio, we had the vision to establish the College Tech Prep program to aid in the educational development of our technology students. This a secondary curriculum will enable the seamless transfer of students from high school to the university level. The leadership of Ohio College Tech Prep additionally is introducing the Project Lead The Way program into Ohio. It is the nation's leading pre-engineering middle and high school program. Our local coordinators for the program, Paul Boguski and Arlene Floyd, have assembled an outstanding instructional and administrative team.
I have written Tim Ryan over the years, enlisting his support for this valuable program at the federal level. We in the Mahoning Valley need to support the locally based Kent and Mahoning consortia of this program. Students and parents can learn more by visiting the Web site at http://www.techprepohio.org or by talking to a high school guidance counselor.
GEORGE J. SHAY, P.E.
Braceville