NOTE: Enrollments are unduplicated--that is, if Johnny Jones enrolled in three classes, he was only counted once. Where the vocational area is in parenthesis above, then the enrollments are duplicated and Johnny Jones would have been courted three times. Reports for these years do not include Exemplary or Cooperative Education programs, since FY 1969 was the first year they operated. Also, these figures are duplicated by program area, since they were so tabulated. 73 (Est) NEW HAMPSHIRE State Director-Neal D. Andrew INTRODUCTION Overall vocational program enrollment has increased 21912 percent over the last 10 years, from a reported total of 7,693 in 1963 to a reported enrollment of 24,579 in 1972 for all vocational programs. Without Federal funding it would have been impossible to achieve the growth in vocational programs that we have experienced over the last 10 years, nor could we continue to maintain these programs if Federal funding were to stop. The State Department of Education must address itself to the problem of providing quality vocational education to a largely sparse population spread over a wide geographic area. Seventy percent of the towns in New Hampshire have a population of 2,500 or under. These lightly populated areas have high unemployment rates and are depressed areas. The Department of Education is attempting to deal with this problem by sponsoring and implementing the 20 vocational area centers concept, which would provide wellplanned, well-staffed, and well-equipped vocational facilities at the area centers. Sending schools could use these facilities to train their high school students in entry-level skills and have the students return to their home schools for their academic training. These area center facilities could also be used for the training of adults and others not in the secondary school system, who have a need for new training, up-grading, or retraining. The State Department's efforts are geared to the development of open entry-exit programs capable of individualizing instruction to meet the differing needs of its students which would include disadvantaged and handicapped. We are anticipating $1 million for tuition transportation and $3.5 million for construction from the State legislature in order to implement the 20 area centers concept. Our overall high school enrollment has been increasing at the rate of 3,000 a year since 1968. Statewide projections indicate that it will continue at this rate through 1977. Of great concern to us is that in 1972 almost 54 percent of the high school graduates in this State did not go on for further training. We feel keenly the responsibility to provide job skills training to this portion of the high school population. In addition, 21 percent of the students who entered 9th grade 4 years ago dropped out of school before reaching the 12th grade. Again, we take very seriously the responsibility for providing these youngsters with the skills they need to enter the job market. Of great concern to us, is that even at the rate our programs are expanding, we cannot catch up to the overall growth rate of the student population requiring our attention without additional funding. Below is a chart of vocational education enrollments for the years requested. a. Job Training Enrollments Please refer to the chart above for figures. b. General Description Vocational enrollments for gainful employment have increased 1000 percent in the period from 1963 to 1972. An indication of the rate of acceleration is reflected in the fact that there was an increase of 130 percent from 1963 to 1968 (a 5-year period) and an increase of 427 percent from 1968 to 1972 (a 4-year period). Our figures further indicate that in 1963 we were able to provide Vocational programs for gainful employment to only 2 percent of high school students grades 9-12. In 1972 we were serving 1812 percent of grades 9-12 and in 1977 we project serving at least 29 percent of this population. We have initiated new programs in radio and TV careers, maintenance mechanics, power mechanics, electricity-electronics, servicestation attendants, hotel-motel, environmental technology careers, health occupations cluster, child care aides, and community services at the secondary level. We have expanded automotive mechanics programs, printing, machinists, electricity, electronics, drafting, sheet-metal, building construction, food service, distributive education, all business and office. occupations, and all agriculture programs, especially horticulture. For example, in T&I alone, the 20 programs that existed in 1963 had expanded to 31 programs in 1968 and had gone up to 56 programs in 1972. c. Postsecondary Courses The postsecondary level is one that has achieved dramatic growth in New Hampshire. This was the direct result of State legislation and funding of a postsecondary vocational-technical system now consisting of six vocational-technical colleges and one technical institute located in different areas of the State. Our enrollment jumped from under 500 day and evening students in 1963 to 2,003 day students in 1972, and 6,000 adult registrations for 1973. In 1963 there existed two postsecondary institutes in Portsmouth and Manchester; one in an old button factory, the other in an abandoned school. These two institutes had been primarily serving returning veterans. In 1965, a vocational-technical institute opened in Concord, offering associate degree programs leading to semiprofessional technical jobs in the engineering technologies and in data processing. In 1966, a college was opened in Berlin offering industrial and health programs. In the same year, new buildings were opened in Manchester and Portsmouth. In 1968, new colleges were opened in Laconia and Claremont, and in 1970 a new facility was opened in Nashua. Since 1965, the technical institute has expanded to include a new health education facility, a library, and a women's residence. The Berlin plant was expanded to include business and management. We are planning to open a new automotive building in Nashua to accommodate 125 more day students and a new health education facility in Claremont which will accommodate an additional 100 students. The postsecondary vocational-technical colleges now offer 2-year associate degree programs in: Automotive Business education: Accounting. Marketing and Management. Midmanagement. Secretarial science. Culinary arts. Drafting. Fire service. Graphic arts. Heating, refrigeration, and air-conditioning. Industrial electricity. Industrial electronics. Internal combustion engines. Machine tool processes. Welding. As well as 1-year diploma programs in: Medical assistant. Medical laboratory assistant. One-year secretarial. Practical nursing. The technical institute in Concord offers an associate in science degree in the engineering technologies: Electrical engineering technology. The Institute also offers data processing with options in computer programing and business management. Associate in science degree are offered in the following programs: Dental hygiene. X-ray technicians. An associate degree is offered for nursing, and a 1-year diploma is awarded to dental assistants. d. Disadvantaged students Our records on the enrollment figures of disadvantaged students are reliable only for fiscal 1972. We identified 1,943 disadvantaged students who were served by vocational programs. Our thrust in this area has been to increase the number of regular programs which will contain modifications so that these students will not be segregated. It is critical that disadvantaged students have their special needs met in learning environments which are individualized for their special needs. In 1972 we had 30 programs offering special supportive services and program modifications at designated area vocational centers. In addition, we had 3 programs operating at other high schools. We also ran 20 additional special programs for students who were unable to function in modified regular programs. We anticipate expanding the supportive services programs at area Vocational centers to 100 by 1977, and to 40 programs in other high schools. |