By Daniel Larios
Staff Writer

November 4, 2014 – Santa Monica College (SMC) was awarded a $1.6 million grant from the California Department of Education’s California Career Pathway Trust as part of a regional cooperative to prepare students for careers in the high tech industry.

The eight-college, 29-high school network called “LA Hi-Tech” was formed to prepare students in Information, Communication, Technology, Entertainment and Entrepreneurship to meet the needs of the tech-based industry in Santa Monica and Los Angeles’ Westside, also known as “Silicon Beach.”

“We will not only be filling a skills gap in the industry, we will also be helping close an achievement gap,” said Frank Dawson, Associate Dean of Career Technical Education at SMC. “The students we serve from diverse backgrounds will be able to rise into the middle class through access to these jobs.”

About 4,700 of the 10,000 jobs that need to be filled in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry are “middle-skill” jobs, meaning that they require an associate degree, certificate of achievement or some level of two-year, post-secondary training, according to officials.

The goal of the collective is to fill more than a quarter of these jobs by training students and in so doing, fill the industry’s skills gap, namely, a lack of local and diverse talent. 

“The whole purpose of this grant is to create economic impact,” said Dr. Patricia Ramos, SMC Dean of Workforce and Economic Development. 

As a part of LA Hi-Tech, SMC president Dr. Chui L. Tsang will sit on the group’s executive council, which is composed of all the college presidents and the high school principals involved.   

The council will work to enact educational policies to support the development of “career pathways” for students to segue from high school to college and into ICT jobs, according to school officials.

“Hopefully, this will make the transition from high school to college easier for students,” said William Lancaster, who teaches graphic design at SMC.  

Lancaster and his colleagues will collaborate with high school partners to link curriculum in areas such as Design Visual Media Arts and Information Services and Support Design.

Policies proposed by LA Hi-Tech include developing dual enrollment courses that prepare students for college-level work, summer bridge programs, mentorships, tutoring and counseling support services.

More than 800 annual internships and “job-shadowing” opportunities with industry partners are planned for students in the ICT plan of study, which will start in ninth grade.

SMC’s design technology department –which includes the graphic design program – has already been training ICT students, with new courses in mobile and user experience design being developed to meet industry needs.

“The long-term impact of participating in LA Hi-Tech will be an increase in the number of students finishing and getting degrees and certificates,” said Chris Fria, chair of SMC’s design technology department.

“Since students will be able to get a head start on our curriculum while still in high school, they will be better equipped to complete our programs at SMC.”
 
According to officials, the ICT industry brings in about $73 billion in sales revenue for Los Angeles and Orange County and employs over one million Californians, including software developers, web designers, database administrators, electrical engineers and graphic designers.