As the economy in Alabama changes and the University’s tuition rises, the number of potential students who instead choose to attend community colleges and technical schools might be rising with them.
Amy Brabham, the vice chancellor for Career and Technical Education and Workforce Development for the Alabama Community College System, said the increase in the manufacturing and automotive, especially in the Alabama area, have pushed individuals into more of a technical based career.
ACCS focuses on three things – academics, adult education and workforce development, which encompasses what the technical institutions do on the basis of what businesses and industries need, Brabham said.
“We have seen increases in our enrollment and in our technical programs specifically,” Brabham said. “A reason why is due to the economic conditions, job changes and lay-offs.”
Brabham said the jobs the ACCS recruits from its economic developers revolve around manufacturing and technical skills.
“The increase in the automotive industry has really changed the complexion of our state,” Brabham said. “We’re now the fifth largest automotive state in the nation, which was not the case 20 years ago.”
Brabham said trying to offset rising costs in the technical institutions is always tough for them.
“In general, it’s about four to five more times expensive to run a career tech program than it is an academic program simply because of the equipment and material costs,” Brabham said. “The instructors are typically high-level experts in their field and to recruit them into our systems is a little more expensive.”
The ACCS has had to raise tuition $2 per hour for each credit hour, Brabham said, but the difference between the cost of a technical education and one at a university is still significant.
“It still costs less than half at a community college than most four-year institutions on average,” Brabham said.
She said the reasons potential students to apply to a technical program depend on the students themselves.
“Our average age of student is between 26 and 27 years old, so usually our enrollment is someone who’s worked somewhere before or maybe they’re changing careers, and it’s a cost factor that encourages them to come because the cost is lower,” Brabham said.
However, Brabham said adult students can be discouraged and intimidated coming back into the technical system and having to take a placement test after not using their math and writing skills in several years.
“Our system is open enrollment so there’s not an admissions criteria that an individual has to meet to get in,” Brabham said. “But in order to receive credit for classes they have to do well in the placement, which can be a little bit scary coming back into the system.”
Brabam said ACCS looks at supply and demand models.
“If we know we need 5,000 welders, then we’ve got to balance our programs and our resources to be able to have those 5,000 welders ready for a certain area of the state,” Brabham said.
“Everything we do is focused on really the supply and demand of business and trying to encourage individuals into fields that we certainly know are going to be a good opportunity when they finish.”
Peggy Palombi, the academic dean at Shelton State Community College, said students in technical programs can get jobs that pay well, with salaries ranging from $60,000 to $100,000.
“The overall reason that you might see more and more students applying for technical programs rather than a university is that the technical company’s jobs actually really pay quite well,” Palombi said. “They are highly skilled and these folks get a strong combination of classroom and hands-on learning through the college as well as strong learning in the work place.”
Palombi said there’s a need by employers who want people who are ready to work in the most efficient way they can. Employers want graduates who are going to be able to come in and contribute fairly quickly to the needs of their company, Palombi said.
“Community colleges tend to be more ‘nimble’ in that we can respond to the needs that are expressed by the employers and try to work with our curriculum,” Palombi said. “That’s some of the things that the technical degrees, like the two-year degrees, associates level degrees can offer.”
Palombi said Shelton State has a close relationship with the Mercedes Benz plant in Vance, which offers special programs where students take some of the most highly skilled jobs in the automotive production industry.
“They come through with us in that preparation and they have a combination of courses that prepare them in things like machine and electrical technology, robotics and so forth as well as having some core academic courses,” Palombi said.
Palombi said she feels that technical education is one that a lot of people are realizing this is something that can provide outstanding opportunities for both students and employers.
“It’s not the only way, but it is one of the options that may have been overlooked for sometime and people are getting to re-understand what that value is,” Palombi said. “We are a bargain compared to others.”
With the rising costs of tuition, more and more students turn toward community colleges for a better financial stability, according to Palombi.
“Our total tuition is no more than roughly $125-130 credit hour,” Palombi said. “Our mission is to work with the technical degrees and with the associate’s level, which is for the first two years of higher education.”
By comparison, a credit hour at The University of Alabama can cost as much as $695 for in-state part-time students, and $1,260 for out-of-state part-time students. For full-time students, that number drops to $384 per credit hour students from Alabama and $956 for out-of-state students.
Palombi said if a student has a passion to become a lawyer or a physician, then they’re going to have to go ahead and go into debt and do the more advanced degrees, which are going to cost more.
“The community colleges are by far the cheapest, but again I always come back to what are the particular aspirations and career goals of the individual,” Palombi said. “They need to ask themselves if they are going to be able to afford these goals in either a community college or university.”
Jonathan Koh, a research associate in the Education Policy Center, said the idea of applying for law school may sound lucrative to some people, but with the economy developing, the field of technical training is becoming a greater advantage.
“Technical programs are cheaper, less time consuming and there are more jobs in those fields such as manufacturing than there are in law,” Koh said.
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