Training Versus Education: A False Choice

By Carol Lucey
From a letter to the Nevada Appeal, January 16, 2002

In a letter to the Nevada Appeal, Western Nevada Community College (WNCC) President Carol Lucey responds to reports of the state's education strategic planning forum, which uses the terms "training" and "liberal arts" as opposing ideas. This is not true, she believes; these terms are"two end points in a very broad spectrum."

She feels that the best technical education programs must include the liberal arts to "[P]rovide students with an intellectual context and values and stress appropriate mathematics and science instruction, communication and critical thinking skills." And it is only when the training is complemented by this component that students' college experiences can lead to advancement throughout a students' life and career. This is why WNCC's welding students, for instance, attend the same general education programs as do the students headed to a university. Lucey believes that a "skilled workforce" must be a well-educated one, and that the primary mission of her community college---and any community college---is not just workforce development, but to serve students by not just training them but educating them as well.

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