Technical schools valuable resource in job hunt

By Brian Tumulty
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — Many of this month's college graduates already have lined up decent-paying jobs without a four-year degree.

Jonathon Hable graduated last week from Northcentral Technical College in Wausau, Wis. Two days later, the 20-year-old started a $9.25-an-hour job for a machine shop that needs him to work 55 hours a week to fill a backlog of orders.

"I'm trying to save up as much as I can and buy a vehicle pretty soon," said Hable, who lives with his parents on a dairy farm and hopes to pursue a second diploma as a diesel mechanic.

Thomas Barton, president of Greenville Technical and Community College in South Carolina, estimates that the majority of the nation's job growth lies in occupations that require more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor's degree.

"We still have some educators in the K-through-12 area who have the philosophy to try their best to send them all to four-year colleges and universities," Barton said. "Up to 20 percent of these people end up coming back to community colleges to get the skills they need after they get their four-year degree."

Barton recently testified in Washington on the need for continued federal support of the Carl Perkins Vocational and Technical Education grant program, the only direct federal grant to community colleges.

The Bush administration has proposed cutting the Perkins program from $1.32 billion this year to $1.01 billion in 2005. Community colleges would be ineligible. Instead, the grants would be redirected to high schools, which already get a large share of the money.

High schools also are getting more attention from the Labor Department. Last month, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced a new partnership with seven skilled trade unions, the Construction Industry Roundtable, and the National Association of Home Builders to notify high school guidance counselors of job opportunities.

"These jobs include construction laborer, operating engineer, carpenter, iron worker, cement mason, bricklayer, truck driver and many other construction-related crafts as well as challenging management positions to oversee complex projects," according to a joint letter.

In addition, the administration is proposing a $250 million program to support job-training programs that community colleges run. President Bush wants the nation's one-stop career training centers to increase the number of workers given job training by shuffling money now used for other purposes.

"We've got to do a better job of training more people with the money we spend," Bush told an audience at Central Piedmont Community College in North Carolina last month. "We've got to make the system work better."

But critics say these steps won't offset the proposed cuts in Perkins, which would result in less federal support for vocational education.

Lawmakers could reject the proposed cuts. And committees that shape the Perkins program appear unlikely to ditch the current approach of allowing states to allocate the money between community colleges and high schools.

Rep. Mike Castle, R.-Del., who chairs the House Subcommittee on Education Reform, said he's hoping to develop a bipartisan reauthorization of the Perkins program that will be ready for a committee vote in June.

Castle thinks high school is too early for many students to decide on a course of study.

"I worry that in ninth grade they are given a few weeks of this and a few weeks of that and then asked to decide," he said. "It's pretty hard at age 14 to decide what you want to do for life."

Bill Ihlenfeldt, president of Chippewa Valley Technical College in Wisconsin, testified in Washington recently that small school districts are unable to provide the technical training that employers require and need community colleges as partners.

Moreover, the training at community colleges is tailored to skills employers need.

A Mercedes dealer from Atlanta traveled to the upstate New York campus of Alfred State College this month to recruit graduating auto technicians — in part because of the school's reputation and because well-trained technicians are in short supply.

Mike Ronan, who teaches students how to rebuild automotive transmissions and drivetrains at Alfred State, said very few of his former students earn less than $45,000 four or five years after graduation. A few make $90,000 to more than $100,000 if they've honed skills working on high-end cars such as Mercedes, BMW and Infiniti.

"And they all get jobs," Ronan said. "These students are coming out with a two-year degree and are valued by the community."