REGION TRIES TO KEEP PACE WITH VO-TECH DEMAND (SECOND OF THREE PARTS)

In early November, when about 20 community leaders and educators from Cape Girardeau County traveled to West Kentucky Tech, some looked like Alice in Wonderland.

They toured the new buildings and state-of-the-art equipment. They saw a course schedule with 40 diploma-level offerings at relatively low prices. They heard about the school's 95 percent job-placement rate.

For people from Southeast Missouri, short-term courses like diagnostic medical sonography, phlebotomy and dental assisting aren't available locally. Neither are courses in court reporting or instrument technology.

Most of West Kentucky Tech's 1,000 students each term come from McCracken County -- the rest are divided between Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri. It's a post-secondary school, and some students go straight from high school. Others come from the work force for additional training.

There are 16 schools like it in Kentucky, all administered by the state's Department for Technical Education under the Workforce Development Cabinet. West Kentucky has a $5.5 million yearly budget.

Director Lee Hicklin came to the school in June 1992 and has seen classes come and go as employment trends change. He has helped coordinate short-term programs for local industry so workers may be trained in a particular skill. All the work contributes to new companies coming in Paducah, he said.

"The chief executive officer of a northern company just came here after looking at 22 locations across the country to build a factory," Hicklin said. "He said he'd never seen anything like West Kentucky Tech. They make their decision Dec. 31, and if they choose another place, it won't be because of technical education."

Things are different in Southeast Missouri. Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School is funded under the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and has a $1.5 million annual budget. The school is responsible for educating both high-school students and adults -- West Kentucky only accepts adults.

This spring, Cape AVTS will offer 74 day and evening courses to adults in health, computers, office technology, technical, home economics and self improvement areas. Two will count for college credit at Shawnee Community College, and all must be self-supporting -- there's no money from DESE specifically to train adults.

In addition, the school offers 32 classes for students who come from Cape Central, Advance, Chaffee, Delta, Jackson, Leopold, Notre Dame and Scott City high schools. Enrollment at Cape AVTS is 576.

Director Harold Tilley is promoting the school's tech-prep program, known as The 2+2 Plan. It allows high-school students the opportunity to earn from six to 24 college credits free of cost while attending high school. Seven programs offer credit through Mineral Area College.

Another concept is The 2+2+2 plan, where students go from Cape AVTS to Mineral Area College to Southeast Missouri State University for their bachelor's degree in a technical field.

Programs at Cape AVTS have become so popular that there is no room for expansion. In the building trades class, students go from classroom work straight to the job site to build a house. There's no room for a lab to do hands-on instruction.

A nearby building on Spring Street houses Horizon Music, and Tilley has been eyeing the site for an addition to the school for years.

"Some of our programs are at a standstill," he said. "If we had the ability to pull some of the adult ed. courses out of the building, it would allow our secondary programs to grow. But I don't see any immediate solution."

TUESDAY: The future of technical education in Southeast Missouri.