A roundtable discussion was held Thursday at Cicero-North Syracuse High School about a “hands-on” career and technical education curriculum in public schools funded by the federal CHIPS act. Teachers say busy experiential coursework keeps students engaged knowing they could one day land a job at Micron. Executive VP and chief people officer April Arnzen says both educational preparation and teamwork will be needed to launch the semi-conductor chip fab in Clay.
“We're going to have to activate all of our options, all of our resources, all of our school districts and teachers and partnering with all of the unions to make sure that we can together collectively bring this to life.”
Arnzen says students need to learn to be adaptable to keep learning after they graduate for the ever-changing tech and semi-conductor industries. C-NS student Lucas says he likes to figure out things in Micron’s pilot program.
Teacher Alexis Williams says the coursework also challenges students to develop open-ended problem solving skills transferrable to other occupations. His excitement for Micron’s pilot program in schools is partly the reason US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo says CHIPS job training programs are worth the money.
“…A first investment ever out of chips workforce we decided to do here and we have another $250 million that we're going to invest in workforce programs all around the country so every American can have a chance to get the skills they need to get a good job.”
Raimondo says the Commerce Department is investing nearly $2 million dollars in Central New York for the Micron job training initiative. The chip fab’s groundbreaking is delayed until 2025.
