Vocational Education Annexes an innovative solution to meet demand for technical education, expand workforce development pathways in Massachusetts
Senator John J. Cronin (D – Fitchburg) helped secured $100 million to expand access to vocational and career-focused education and grow the Commonwealth’s skilled workforce in the Senate’s version of a supplementary budget bill passed this week.
Cronin’s initiative stands up a pilot program to create Vocational Education Annexes at comprehensive high schools across the Commonwealth, giving juniors and seniors with no access to a vocational program the ability to pursue a pathway into the trades. Cronin has cited exorbitant costs of constructing new vocational schools and a rapidly aging skilled workforce as the catalyst for proposing the novel approach.
“Voke annexes will deliver new vocational seats and economic opportunity to the right target population—kids who will enter the workforce after graduation from high school,” said Senator Cronin. “This initiative cuts through red tape to give kids that have been shut out of vocational schools the chance to enter a rewarding, high paying, and in demand career in the building trades.”
The Senate’s bill invests up to $100 million to pilot a program that makes Cronin’s idea a reality. Each annex would consist of a light construction building located directly on comprehensive high school campuses. The grant program aligns vocational training with regional workforce demands to create a pipeline of young, skilled workers that legislators say is essential to meeting to the Commonwealth’s long-term housing and infrastructure goals.
The pilot prioritizes communities that have significant waitlists for career and vocational education and taking steps to produce more new and sustainable housing. The pilot would also give unique consideration to programs that serve student populations that experience historically low admissions rates to vocational technical school districts.
