Top 10 Reasons Why Electronic Enrollments Are Low

I have been researching the low enrollment problem for over 3 years now. After lots of literature research, a major survey, and talking with faculty and administrators at conferences, it is clear that there is not just one over riding problem. The problem is multi-faceted and complex. Here, for whatever it is worth to you, is what I have come to believe. (And incidentally, these are not listed in any order of priority or importance.)
1. Offshoring - This is the movement of manufacturing from the US to other countries like China, Mexico, etc. This has indeed reduced the need for manufacturing and service techs. However, this will continue clearly because it is beneficial to the companies. The offshoring process won't eliminate manufacturing completely in the US but it will continue to reduce it.
2. Outsourcing - This is the use of workers in other countries to do US support jobs. Again, the goal is saving money. US companies are continuing to outsource many jobs. My own view is that this has hurt the computer industry more than electronics but still jobs that may have gone to AAS technology graduates have been outsourced to India particularly. Most of these are programming and help desk jobs. Since many electronic jobs require hands-on contact with the hardware, it is impossible to outsource them. Lucky for us.
3. Technology and Economics - Technology advances especially in semiconductors have made electronic equipment far more reliable so less repair is needed. Furthermore, electronic products have gotten much more complex and are extremely difficult to troubleshoot and repair. The fact that all the circuitry is in just a few chips on a tiny printed circuit board means that the product is typically not repairable at the board level. In fact, the economics of the situation due to high labor costs (not to mention healthcare) is such that it is cheaper to throw away a defective product and buy an newer more advanced unit than repair it. This one fact alone is a major influence in how may electronic techs we do NOT need. The nature of tech work today is higher level systems-like troubleshooting and less component level troubleshooting and repair. Component level service is not completely dead but you can certainly see where the emphasis has shifted.
4. Major shift to PCs - Beginning in the 1980's, most students abandoned electronics to ride the wave of the PC industry success. It was good for them as jobs were plentiful and certification offered big bucks not attainable in an electronic tech job. Who is to blame them. Many schools added new PC departments while others added PCs to electronics. In the end, PCs dominated. Many electronic departments simply faded away leaving a computer technology department.
5. Less interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). This declining interest in STEM has been going on for years. High school students don't want to be geeks and nerds. Our society is one that rewards celebrities in movies, TV, music and sports. People want to be rich and famous and not buried in a lab somewhere. College bound students want to study law, business and journalism(media). Anything but STEM. A great deal of this has to do with the "math problem" which was extensively discussed recently on the EDT Listserv.
6. Bad PR - The tech bubble bust of 2000/2001 really put electronics into a tailspin. We have the negative press to blame for an on-going disregard for engineering and technology jobs. While the problem is mostly over now, there is still a lingering reluctance to touch anything related to the Internet, technology and the like for fear that will hit again. Well...duh...Any one who has ever worked in electronics, the semiconductor industry or computer industry knows that these are very cyclical businesses. It is natural to have the ups and downs In fact, most businesses have naturally occurring higs and lows. This most recent downturn was a big one, however, and it has really put off many who might have otherwise chose electronics as a career. Where can we get some positive PR?
7. Loss of industry support - I think industry has somewhat abanonded support for many AAS programs simply because they no longer need as many technician level people as they did in the past. With less manufacturing, testing and service jobs there simply is less or even no need for tech workers. No need to support something that is not there. Of course, tech work hasn't gone away entirely but it is down. Many industries still need techs but with different knowledge and skills that we were supplying in the past. Or even today. So many schools have reffuse to give industry what they need so industry has taken off on its own to provide the training that some schools have been reluctant to supply. Finally, I am also appaled at how some schools actually never talk with industry to see what they need. There are pockets of need all around. Each school has to dig these out and adapt. Otherwise, expect to see enrollments continue to decline.
8. Dated curricula and courses - Perhaps one reason industry has less interest in current programs is that seem to be the same as they were 20 or 30 years ago. Many programs are training students for jobs that no longer exist. Why? There is an unusual resistance to change in the community colleges. As humans we all resist change but not to the degree I have witnessed in the CCs. Where I teach, faculty rabidly fights for the status quo. I guess for many faculty, the idea of having to learn new technolgy and teach it is just unacceptable. Since technican work has changed drastically, some rework of the curricula is desparately needed. We do not need to teach as much math and theory as before. Techs just don't need it to do their jobs. Of course, all techs need some theoretical background, it just does not have to be as rigorous as it once was. Faculty see this as dumbing down the curriculum. I see it as just adapting to the real world, giving students what they really need to survive and do well. We are hurting students and industry by not changing. It is a selfish characteristic of faculty that I see nationwide. Today we are in a change of die situation and I do not see much change going on.
9. Prospects do not know what electronics is these days - Go out and ask a high school student, graduate or anyone for that matter what an electronic technican is or does. You will find as I have that no one actually knows. They used to, but not today. It is an enigma of a job. People do know what computer techs and programmers do, but not electronic techs. Do we even know what an electronic tech is today? No wonder fewer and fewer students enroll. They have no clue what the job is or what they will do. Part of the problem is that the term electronic tech is used less and less. Instead, we see jobs for field service techs or engineers, manufacturing techs, maintenance techs, customer representatives, installers, and the like. This would seem like a problem that could be solved with department name changes, course name changes and so on. A good PR program would also help.
10. Lack of promotion - I guess all schools lack promotion. You need to get out and sell in this day and time to expect any increase in enrollments. I witnessed this first hand at my college. When we didn't advertise, we got few enrollments. When we advertised, we got many, many more. It really works well. Schools simply won't spend the money. The academic mind set is "if we build it they will come". Not necessairly. You can go on saying that until you department flounders then what the administration will say is simply that we will not fund promotion for a department that has been in decline for so long. Sayonora... In the mean time, the proprietary schools (DeVry, ITT Tech, Cornithian, NTI, and ECPI and others) only get more students. If you ever wondered how these schools continue to grow and prosper which equivalent CC programs are in decline, now you know.

If you know of any other reasons that I missed, let me hear from you. Input from all of you is welcome anytime.