VOA标准英语2013--US Colleges Struggle to Keep Up with New Technical Skills

 

US Colleges Struggle to Keep Up with New Technical Skills

Northern Virginia Community College near Washington has several campuses and 75,000 students. It offers a two year associate degree. Many of its students, including Marc McCarthy, hope to turn computer skills into a new profession and a good salary.

“Fortunately in this industry, we are really blessed with a lot of openings,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy is back in college after decades working in hotels and restaurants - an industry, he said, that offers few good opportunities in the future.

Experts said many U.S. manufacturing, administrative¹, and middle management jobs have been eliminated by automation and foreign competition in recent years.  Cornell University Labor² Economist³ Sharon Poczter said they were once a ticket to a secure middle class salary. But the job market has changed.

“This growth in jobs has been either towards the low skill, low income  jobs, or the higher skill, higher income jobs and that’s why we have seen this hollowing out of the middle class, of the factory jobs, of the office jobs," Poczter said.

Educators tell students it's more important than ever to develop math, science and computer skills because technological⁴ change is accelerating, and the demand for highly-specialized skills is growing.  

School administrators⁵ are also trying to identify skills needed for emerging professions, and figure out ways to teach them.

The president of Northern Virginia Community College, Robert Templin, said it's difficult for schools to hit this “moving target.”

"Just in the last five years, new careers in fields like health information technology, cyber security, geospatial systems, these are fields [that] a decade ago didn't even exist.  So trying to prepare someone for a job that is not yet there is pretty difficult," Templin said.  

But Templin said it's worth the effort because it makes it more likely that graduates will find good jobs.  Computer Science graduates, he said, can start at $60,000 a year.

Unemployment for U.S. college graduates is low, but a recent survey shows that four out of 10 recent graduates say they are under-employed, doing jobs, like in retail⁶ sales, that do not require the degrees they have earned.  They are disappointed because these jobs do not bring the kinds of salaries they were hoping to earn.

1 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

5 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

6 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。