A WINNING REFLECTION.

A WINNING REFLECTION. Across the country, postsecondary career and technical educationprograms are showing steady or increasing enrollments. The key lies insuccessfully mirroring local employment trends. Remember playing "Simon Says" as a kid? The goal of thegame was reacting to "Simon" on the right cue. If you jumpedthe gun or took too long, you were out. It looks like community collegesare timing things right and winning their own copycat game. But in theircase, it's community need and the local job market they must keeptheir eyes on. "We have to mirror the community. We can't afford tooperate in a vacuum," says Andrea George, a program manager atMilwaukee Area Technical College Milwaukee Area Technical College (or MATC) is a community college based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It offers day, evening, and weekend classes at campuses in downtown Milwaukee, Oak Creek, West Allis, and Mequon. About 60,000 students are enrolled in the institution per year. (MATC MATC Madison Area Technical CollegeMATC Milwaukee Area Technical CollegeMATC Mellon Awards for Technology CollaborationMATC Maine Appalachian Trail ClubMATC Mid-America Transportation CenterMATC Mini-Armored Troop CarrierMATC Maine Antique Tractor Club ) in Wisconsin. George saysbusiness and industry input and local job market demands have everythingto do with the programs MATC offers. If MATC didn't react andchange along with the community it serves, it might still have programsin typesetting typesetting:see printing. typesettingSetting of type for use in any of various printing processes. Type for printing, using woodblocks, was invented in China in the 11th century, and movable type using metal molds had appeared in Korea by the 13th and shoe repair, she says. The Milwaukee campus is one of four in the MATC system. In a 1998single-campus enrollment tally by Community College Week, Milwaukeeranked 21st in the nation with 21,903 students. George says there are63,341 MATC students in all, including credit and non-creditparticipants. And Milwaukee is in good company. Wisconsin had 109,522public and private community college students in 1994, according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. theAmerican Association American Association refers to one of the following professional baseball leagues: American Association (19th century), active from 1882 to 1891. American Association (20th century), active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997. of Community Colleges (AACC AACC American Association of Community Colleges (formerly American Association of Junior Colleges)AACC American Association for Clinical ChemistryAACC American Association of Cereal ChemistsAACC Anne Arundel Community College ), making it one of thetop states in community college enrollment. According to George andothers in the community college field, it's all a matter of payingattention Noun 1. paying attention - paying particular notice (as to children or helpless people); "his attentiveness to her wishes"; "he spends without heed to the consequences"attentiveness, heed, regard . Community colleges served 10.5 million students last year--5.5million credit and 5 million non-credit--comprising 45 percent of allU.S. undergraduates, according to the AACC. "National enrollments for the last few years have been fairlylevel, but we're starting to see some increases," says NormaKent, AACC's director of communications Director of Communications is a position in the private and public sectors. The Director of Communications is responsible for managing and directing an organization's internal and external communications. . Kent gives three majorreasons for rising enrollment numbers--information technology, alliedhealth and job training for adults and business. But enrollment increases also bring challenges, she adds. Communitycolleges need to create more partnership opportunities with business,accommodate more students in a wider age range and provide customizedtraining for local industry--all to continue the upward swing. Meetingthese challenges means more professional development for teachers, moreadvisory committee meetings for faculty and more technology in theclassrooms. High tech, high demand Demand for information technology (IT) professionals is so high innorthern Virginia Northern Virginia (NoVA) consists of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties and the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, and Manassas Park. that the state department of education recruited P.D.Scott from Northern Virginia Community College “NVCC” redirects here. For other uses, see NVCC (disambiguation).Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC), comprising several locations in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. (NVCC NVCC Northern Virginia Community CollegeNVCC Naugatuck Valley Community College (Waterbury, Connecticut)) to coordinate itsIT certification programs. "The growth is such that it's difficult to find enoughfaculty for IT training," Scott says. "The demand for ITprograms is coming both from students and business and industry lookingto train their employees." The Information Technology Association of America See ITAA. estimates an ITworker shortage of more than 300,000 nationwide (though that number hasbeen disputed by the General Accounting Office). And Kent saysentry-level salaries in the IT field have increased 24 percent in recentyears (from $20,753 to $25,771) compared with an average 15 percent forother programs commonly offered by community colleges such as those inallied health. To try to offset the shortage, the AACC is working on a$7 million project with Microsoft Corp. to develop pilot programs fortraining IT workers. MATC takes high-tech learning a step further. Like many largecommunity colleges, the school has branched into distance education tobetter serve its communities and increase enrollment--and George saysit's succeeding. "We offer more than 50 online classes. Thatis a rapidly growing area," she says. Nearly 58 percent of two-yearpublic colleges offer distance education courses, according to the U.S.Department of Education. Another 28 percent plan to start a program inthe next three years. George says the community also is very interested in taking coursesthrough MATC's I-TV--a cable television system that transmittedclasses to more than 10,000 students in 1997. At some locations, I-TVuses fiber optics fiber optics,transmission of digitized messages or information by light pulses along hair-thin glass fibers. Each fiber is surrounded by a cladding having a high index of refractance so that the light is internally reflected and travels the length of the fiber systems to connect college classrooms to state highschools, hospitals, industry training centers, public libraries andcorrectional facilities. Interactive two-way links--which cost about$2,000 per site--allow teachers and students in different locations tosee and hear one another. The more popular courses on I-TV and on campusare technology-related, George says. "All classes having to do withtechnology are growing--the Internet courses, graphic arts graphic arts:see aquatint; drawing; drypoint; engraving; etching; illustration; linoleum block printing; lithography; mezzotint; niello; pastel; poster; silk-screen printing; silhouette; silverpoint; sketch; stencil; woodcut and wood engraving. . There'sdefinitely a need there." Mirroring the national trend, MATC also is experiencing a growthspurt growth spurtPediatrics A period of rapid growth in middle adolescence; ♀ ↑ ±8 cm/yr ±age 12; ♂ ↑±10 cm/yr ± age 14; GS is orderly, affecting acral parts–ie, hands and feet grow before proximal regions, in its allied health programs. Responding to feedback from localbusiness and industry, it recently added programs in optician optician,filler of prescriptions for and dispenser of corrective lenses. An optician may grind lenses as instructed by the prescription of an optometrist (see optometry) or ophthalmologist (see ophthalmology) or transcribe the instructions for laboratory mechanics. technologyand geriatric care. According to the AACC, community colleges awarded 61,021certificates in health professions and related sciences last year, morethan in any other certificate program of study. (Certificates inbusiness management and administration services came in a distant secondat 29,231.) The health field also ranked third overall inassociate's degrees: * Liberal arts liberal arts,term originally used to designate the arts or studies suited to freemen. It was applied in the Middle Ages to seven branches of learning, the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. , science/general studies, humanities--149,019 * Business management and administration services--81,850 * Health professions and related sciences--79,009 The Bureau of Labor Statistics Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)A research agency of the U.S. Department of Labor; it compiles statistics on hours of work, average hourly earnings, employment and unemployment, consumer prices and many other variables. (BLS See Bureau of Labor Statistics. ) projects a 25 percent increasein jobs for health technicians and technologists through 2006. An agingpopulation, a rise in managed care programs and technologicaladvancements are among the reasons for the health care industry boom.Job openings for radiologic technologists, for example, are expected toincrease "faster than average"--21 to 35 percent through2006--according to the latest BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.Radiologic technologists produce X-ray film Noun 1. X-ray film - photographic film used to make X-ray picturesbitewing - a dental X-ray film that can be held in place by the teeth during radiography of patients for diagnosingmedical problems, among other related tasks. Training programs rangefrom a one-year certificate to a bachelor's degree, but the BLSsays two-year programs are most prevalent. Full-time radiologictechnologists earned a median salary of $37,300 in 1997, the handbooksays. The BLS also estimates significant job growth for cardiologytechnologists (25 percent), clinical laboratory technologists andtechnicians (15 percent), dental hygienists (48 percent), emergencymedical technicians e��mer��gen��cy medical techniciann. Abbr. EMTA person trained and certified to appraise and initiate the administration of emergency care for victims of trauma or acute illness before or during transportation of victims to a health care (45 percent) and licensed practical nurses li��censed practical nursen. Abbr. LPN A nurse who has completed a practical nursing program and is licensed by a state to provide routine patient care under the direction of a registered nurse or a physician. (21percent). Two-year colleges are the chief source of education andtraining for these jobs, most of which require an associate'sdegree and state certification. And with the health care field predictedto continue growing well into the next century, community collegesshould see their enrollments rise simply by keeping pace with industry. More big business Scott of NVCC says two-year colleges have got a leg up when itcomes to providing customized business and industry training. "Oneof the advantages a community college has over a four-year college isthat it's really able to concentrate on the local community'sneeds," he says. Four-year colleges must be broader in focus, Scottexplains, because they serve a diverse population throughout thestate--or nationally. "Our emphasis can depend more on the localeconomy and industry needs," he says. And what industry needs is to update employees' skills to keeppace with technology and the evolving workplace, says Kent, adding that"contract training isn't always reflected in enrollmentnumbers because [CBIT CBIT Center for Business Information TechnologiesCBIT Continuous Built-In TestCBIT Center for Business/Industry Training (Brazosport College)CBIT Computer Based Interactive Training programs] don't have to be for credit. Sowhile those numbers may not show up, they are a source of growth." Central Piedmont Community College Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) is a large community college located in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The school was founded in 1963; it is the result of a merger between Mecklenburg College and the Central Industrial Education Center. (CPCC CPCC Central Piedmont Community College (Charlotte, NC)CPCC Certified Professional Co-Active CoachCPCC Canadian Private Copying Collective (Canada)CPCC Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee ) in Charlotte, N.C., hasan on-campus corporate training center and offers on-site customizedtraining. CPCC also houses a Microsoft Authorized Academic TrainingCenter where students can take such courses as Fundamentals of MicrosoftVisual Basic 4.0, Supporting Microsoft Windows See Windows. (operating system) Microsoft Windows - Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then. NT and Microsoft WindowsOperating Systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. and Services Architecture. CPCC instructors and their credentials for teaching customizedtraining courses--such as certifications and prior industry trainingexperience--are posted on CPCC's Web site (www.cpcctraining.org).Among its most successful training partnerships is one with OkumaMachine Tools Inc. CPCC instructors teach employees various computersoftware programs, management skills and updated manufacturing skills atthe Okuma Technology Institute. CPCC works with nearly 500 businesseseach year, including BellSouth, Coca-Cola, U.S. Airways and LucentTechnologies. A shift for career's sake Just three months ago the National Center for PostsecondaryImprovement (NCPI NCPI Network Critical Physical InfrastructureNCPI National Clay Pipe Institute (Alexandria, VA)NCPI National Crime Prevention InstituteNCPI Net Cost of Pure Insurance (life insurance)) issued a report called The Transition from InitialEducation to Working Life in the United States of America UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The name of this country. The United States, now thirty-one in number, are Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, . Researchers,led by Robert Zemsky at the University of Pennsylvania (body, education) University of Pennsylvania - The home of ENIAC and Machiavelli.http://upenn.edu/.Address: Philadelphia, PA, USA. , called one majorfinding "the vocationalization of higher education," sayingthat "students are increasingly choosing major courses of studythat lead to vocational and professional degrees ... nearly disappearingare those majors at the academic core, those pursued for learning'ssake." Zemsky and his colleagues found that in 1998 only 1 percent of allfour-year undergraduate students and a "minimal percentage of all[postsecondary] students" pursued degrees in philosophy orreligion. At the same time, 16 percent of all undergraduates were inbusiness education programs and 12 percent were in programs related tohealth care careers. "The purpose of pursuing a college or university education inthe United States Education in the United States is provided mainly by government, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local. School attendance is mandatory and nearly universal at the elementary and high school levels (often known outside the United States as the is becoming decidedly more vocational," the studyconcludes. "What most middle- and upper-income families now seekfor themselves as well as their children are tertiary educationopportunities that can provide a competitive premium in the labormarket labor marketA place where labor is exchanged for wages; an LM is defined by geography, education and technical expertise, occupation, licensure or certification requirements, and job experience ." Dan Shapiro, director of research for the University ofPennsylvania's Institute for Research in Higher Education, predictsa shift in college majors that will reflect the national andinternational economies. "Instead of liberal arts, it will bebusiness," he says. "There are two forces at workhere--businesses and employers who need [advanced] skills from theiremployees and a set of individuals looking at college with a ratherinstrumental attitude." But of all the postsecondary options, it appears community collegesare most responsive to these evolving demands. Katherine Boswell, aprogram manager for the Education Commission of the States The Education Commission of the States (ECS) was founded as a result of the creation of the Compact for Education, supported by all 50 states and approved by Congress in 1965. The original idea of establishing an interstate compact on education and creating an operational arm to follow up (ECS See eComStation. ),recently completed a comprehensive study called TransformingPostsecondary Education for the 21st Century, in which she surveyed thenation's governors about their education priorities. Boswell pointsto this example to illustrate a positive outlook for community colleges. * Governors' Prioritization of State Funding Given your current state needs, please indicate how you wouldprioritize each of the following spending categories.Category "Very high priority" (in percent)K-12 education 97Postsecondary education 83Early childhood dev./child care 74Criminal justice 51Health care 49Welfare reform / social services 49Roads / infrastructure 46Return surplus to taxpayers 37 In another question about postsecondary education's responseto state needs, 69 percent of governors said community and technicalcolleges were "responsive" or "very responsive."Only 41 percent of governors said the same about four-year publiccolleges. When answering questions about their states' futurechallenges, 86 percent of governors said postsecondary institutions willbe "important" or "very important" to meetingemployment skills and job training needs. "I think there's little question ... the primarymotivation for parents and for students going into postsecondaryeducation now is for job preparation," Boswell says. "Thecritical thinking skills that one gets in the liberal arts are valuableand transferable to other settings, but I don't think [thoseskills] and career preparation have to be mutually exclusive." The top changes governors said must occur (or must continue tooccur) to prepare their states for the next century are encouraginglifelong learning in postsecondary education (97 percent), facilitatingeducation delivery via technology (83 percent) and requiringcollaboration with business and industry in curriculum development (77percent). "Community colleges started as a stepping stone to a four-yeardegree," says AACC's Kent. "And they still are that, butnow there's an emphasis on marketable skills. And while every statetakes its own approach to education, [community colleges] are seeing theincreases." A Look at Enrollment The data shown were compiled by the American Association ofCommunity Colleges (AACC). These are total enrollment numbers forcommunity colleges in fall 1994. Studying Up * Transforming Postsecondary Education for the 21st Century is freefrom the Education Commission of the States. Call Gary Frank, (303)299-3692. * Learn more about the Central Piedmont Community College CorporateTraining Center at www.cpcctraining.org. Or call Paul Koehnke, (704)330-6471. * The Transition from Initial Education to Working Life in theUnited States of America is $10 from the National Center forPostsecondary Improvement. To order call (650) 723-7724. * Learn more about the programs at Milwaukee Area Technical Collegeat www. milwaukee.tec.wi.us. Or call Andrea George, (414) 297-6600. * Microsoft offers a free CD-ROM CD-ROM:see compact disc. CD-ROMin full compact disc read-only memoryType of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). about online teaching andlearning. Go to www. microsoft.com/education/hed/online to register foran online learning resource kit. * To view more statistics about community colleges, visit theAmerican Association of Community Colleges at www.aacc.nche.edu andchoose "Research" from the blue menu. RELATED ARTICLE: PREP STEPS For tech prep's seventh birthday in 1997, it got its firstmajor evaluation. The results were good, but researchers who conductedthe study for the U.S. Department of Education concluded there'sroom for improvement. Led by Alan Hershey of MPR (MultiProtocol Router) Software from Novell that provides router capabilities for its NetWare servers. It supports IPX, IP, AppleTalk and OSI protocols as well as all the major LANs and WANs. Associates Inc., the report is based onnational surveys of local tech-prep consortia and a follow-up survey of486 tech-prep students who graduated from high school in 1995. The good news is the majority (58 percent) of all tech-prepstudents enrolled in postsecondary education and training aftergraduation. Of those, 55 percent went to a community college and 36percent went to a four-year college. However, they didn'tnecessarily go to the community college because of well-establishedarticulation agreements. Researchers found that in 1993 about 80 percent of tech-prepstudents were participating in articulated programs with local communitycolleges. By 1995, that number fell to about 60 percent. One reason maybe that many tech-prep students had not chosen a career path bygraduation, researchers say, so the postsecondary program they choseoften deviated from the articulated programs. Among tech prep's accomplishments, the study highlights four: 1. Improved lines of communication "Lines of Communication" is an episode from the fourth season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5. SynopsisFranklin and Marcus attempt to persuade the Mars resistance to assist Sheridan in opposing President Clark. and cooperation. Tech prepconsortia have played a key role in promoting staff development andcollaborative curriculum development between academic and technicalteachers. They also have increased opportunities for professionaldevelopment. 2. Heightened interest in curriculum change and innovation. Techprep has shed light on applied academics, contextual teaching andhands-on learning. Although there is little research proving theeffectiveness of these methods, there is much anecdotal evidence anecdotal evidence,n information obtained from personal accounts, examples, and observations. Usually not considered scientifically valid but may indicate areas for further investigation and research. suggesting they can increase students' motivation, interest andachievement. 3. Greater employer contact with schools. In many communities, techprep has been the catalyst for getting employers involved in schoolactivities beyond their traditional donations of equipment or service onadvisory boards. Educators increasingly view their interactions withemployers as useful ways to bring new technology and information aboutthe world of work to their classrooms. 4. Increased focus on math and science skills for technicalstudents. Many teachers and counselors see tech prep as a way toencourage technical students to take more math and science. There islittle research on the benefits of this, but educators see it as a wayof enhancing students' postsecondary and career options. This study is available online from the Department of Education. Goto ww.ed.gov/offices/OUS/eval/voced.html.--M.L.