TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — At the Pima JTED campus on South Park Avenue they are looking forward to a new building for the specialized learning there.
JTED stands for Joint Technical Education District—and this is the part of tech that is probably safe from the tech of artificial intelligence.
JTED students work with their brains–and their hands, learning the kind of skills AI can’t match right now, like custom welding and a wide range of construction and repair skills.
Once construction is done, JTED will be expanding into a new workforce training building with more room and more specialized learning space than JTED could put in a conventional classroom.
Congressman Juan Ciscomani was able to get three million dollars in funds to make the building possible.
He says students have learned JTED can prep them for hands-on jobs without running up big student debts—and some of the jobs can pay 100 thousand a year. That means JTED needs more room for its programs.
“About 800 kids that try to get into JTED that weren't able to. So I asked what are the projects or the programs with the most demand. Welding is one of them. EMT is another one. Cosmetology is another one.
These are programs that we want students that want to be able to get into these programs and even get certified in some cases to be able to do that because those are the jobs that are hiring, those are the almost the AI proof jobs out there that AI will play a component, but AI is not gonna be replacing your plumber tomorrow.”
Merrill Kemp Wilcox is Executive director for the JTED Board. She says the new building will help JTED teach what our community needs.
“It's directly tied to construction; the industrial trades. We have welding in there. We have a lot going on in the engineering space, robotics, STEM. We have connections with aerospace. We have connections with the mining industry. It is directly underpinning and responsive to the needs of our community.”
Leilani Patino says what she learns at JTED will be a strong foundation when she does go to college.
“It's just more hands on. You're actually understanding the material and not just memorizing it or anything. You're just learning so much in such a few years.”
She is a freshman now, so the new building should be ready in time for her to take classes there.
