2 min read March 2023 — Pinellas Technical College’s Clearwater campus is a public college that is leading local provision of technical education. Invest: spoke with Jakub Prokop, director of Pinellas Technical College’s Clearwater campus, about their enrollment rate, the support they are looking for from business partners and the impacts of technological advancement on their curriculum.
What have been the key highlights for your institution over the past year?
The demand for workforce education has been very high. The pandemic has shown a lot of people that they need jobs that are essential because folks in non-trade jobs were told to stay home. We were proud to open two new programs that came about because of conversations with the local chambers of commerce in the community. One was the low voltage or limited voltage technician program which includes cameras, security, and physical access. The other one was the Composites Manufacturing program which has been approved by the State of Florida and is the first one in the state.
Has the decline in enrollment nationwide affected your institution?
Our graduation rate for the county is still good, so that hasn’t been an impact. We have worked very hard to change the face of workforce education through a concentrated outreach effort in our high schools. We developed an internal recruiting department, and we have recruiters that go to all of our high schools to spread the word about what we offer. We are finding that students are getting tired of sitting in classrooms and they just want to do something else. We offer an option to students that is exciting. Our enrollment has increased and I’m very happy to report that.
What are some of the effective strategies you want students to know about before entering the workforce?
Number one is relationships and being present. It’s a time-consuming task, but relationships are key. Knowing my leaders through my work with the chambers of commerce and other community leaders is imperative to success. The two new programs that we recently implemented stemmed from our conversations with business leaders. The question was, what do you want our students to know and how can we get better? And then on the school side, I can come back and translate that message into curriculum and strategies for the management of the students within the classroom environment. At PTC we create an environment of a simulated workplace. We bring in the norms of the industry and lay those norms on our students from day one. And those norms come from my business partners. It is imperative to talk to our business partners to know what they need.
How is technology continuing to influence innovation at your school?
We are a technical school, so every technology is changing in all of the programs, and it just continues to grow. We have to be flexible and stay in touch with our partners on the newest technology. For example, we have an automotive and diesel program. There’s a company that’s building electric boats here in Pinellas County. What are we doing to teach about the electric part and the hybrid part of these vehicles? So, we are launching a new apprenticeship program specifically for that purpose. That’s how we have to approach all of our technologies when something new comes out. Our mission at Pinellas Technical College is to provide our students with the opportunity to gain national workplace competencies, and we make all our decisions based on that mission.
What support are you looking for from business partners?
I would encourage our business partners in the community to reach out to workforce organizations and technical colleges. We can’t do this job effectively without the industry’s input. We have great staff, and we have great teachers, but we’re not out there in the industry everyday. We need to make sure that we can provide the type of training that will get our students employed into the system. I had a good support system from my family that made me choose my career path wisely, but what do we do with the people that don’t have those support systems? And many times, they end up on my doorstep and they’re passionate, but they lack the confidence to take on the risk of trying something new. Communication technology has changed the entire dynamic of what people think they can or can’t do, and the psychological aspects of that are severely impeding a person’s belief in themselves. We have a great community that needs workers, but they can’t send people to get trained because they are needed where they are.
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