Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | August 16, 2021 | Worcester Business Journal 15 Joanne Fowling Director of Opera ons Congratulations Joanne! The Boys & Girls Club of Worcester is proud to celebrate Joanne Fowling for being selected to the WBJ's 40 Under Forty Class of 2021! Thank you for your leadership, dedica on and passion that inspires us all. Congratula ons, Joanne, and to all the 40 under Forty winners! Congratulations, Brittany Gesner! 2021 WBJ 40 Under Forty Award Brittany continues to enhance communities through her leadership and work. www.vhb.com Engineers | Scientists | Planners | Designers students attending a four-year college, compared to 55.7% of students across Massachusetts. Worcester Technical High School also enjoys a higher graduation rate than high schools statewide, with 98.4% grad- uating in four years in 2019. However, students at Worcester Tech do not attend post-secondary education programs at higher rates than students who graduate statewide. In 2019, 64.2% of graduates continued their education, with only 41.5% going to a four-year school. Timothy Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and former lieutenant governor, doesn't think the onus is on vocational regulators to take issue with students who choose to take their voca- tional training and attend college, versus directly entering the workforce. "We can do both," Murray said. "We can walk and chew gum." More people are going to college across the board, he said, and institut- ing a lottery would still leave applicants rejected from vocational programs. From his vantage point, the most important step to remedy waitlists and boost the trades workforce is to expand vocational programming, both through building new schools and by adding vo- cational-technical training opportunities to schools. e latter is especially useful, he said, when comprehensive high schools add programs that complement, rather than compete with, their local vocational school. "Any kid or family that wants access to a Chapter 74 program should have it because it's the way of the future," Murray said. Although stake- holders vary on whether they think it's appropriate for vocational schools to graduate a high number of stu- dents into college, most everyone agrees vocational programs should be expanded, in general, whether through building new schools, public-private partnerships, hybrid programs like Blackstone Valley Ed Hub, which offers training to more population groups than just high school students, or through adding on to preex- isting comprehensive schools. "ere's obviously a challenge here, with bringing high-level education, which we know vocational education is. We've seen the success of the vocational schools," said Jeffrey Turgeon, executive director of the MassHire Central Region Workforce Board. "So the challenge is how do we expand that?" At the end of the day, the goal should be bringing the opportunity to have vocational training to those who want it, which could then reduce waitlists at local schools, Turgeon said. Timothy Murray, president & CEO, Worcester Regional chamber W

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