High School Pre-Engineering Academies in Oklahoma: Francis Tuttle Technology Center in Oklahoma City Launched Its Pre-Engineering Academy with 40 High School Students This Past Fall

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The U.S. has more than one million jobs available for engineers and well-educated technicians, yet those high paying jobs stand open because there are not enough qualified people to fill them.

According to research by the National Alliance for Pre-Engineering Programs, the dropout rate in colleges of engineering and engineering technology programs exceeds SO percent in the first two years. Two contributing factors for this high number are that students don't have an understanding of what engineers do and they didn't take the right combination of high school courses to prepare them to succeed in this rigorous course of study.

Pre-engineering academies now operating in Oklahoma's technology centers plan on tightening that gap, according to Robin Schott, innovative initiatives and services manager at the Oklahoma Department of CareerTech. The goal is to help students be successful in engineering degreed programs and postsecondary engineering …