Mass. vocational schools have long lists, says survey

BOSTON – A recent survey found that vocational and technical schools across Massachusetts have long waiting lists for students seeking admission, The Boston Globe reported last week.
The survey, conducted by Northeastern University School of Law, found that at least 3,500 students were unable to get into public vocational schools in the past two years, with the longest waiting lists in communities with high unemployment and large minority populations.
The waiting list is creating a bottleneck in worker training even as thousands of well-paying jobs go unfilled for lack of skilled labor, according to the survey.
The report said that the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School turned away more than 500 students because of lack of capacity last year. The Bristol County city has a 10.5 percent jobless rate, nearly double the state average, the newspaper said.
About half of 66 vocational and technical high schools in Massachusetts responded to the Northeastern survey, which collected wait-list information, including racial and income data, from 2012 or 2013. Of the schools that participated, 21 had waiting lists and 10 did not.
The Globe said that the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education surveyed 334 Massachusetts employers earlier this year and found that 69 percent of those responding experienced difficulty in hiring employees with the appropriate skills. •

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