Jeffco Colleges Keep Pace with Employer Needs
Published Dec 22, 2009
Red Rocks Community College is a leader in industry-specific training programs.
At Arapahoe Community College, your life can turn in nearly any direction. You can train to work with the very young in the college’s early childhood education program, the very old in its eldercare training courses – and even the recently departed in its mortuary science degree program, the only such program among Colorado’s 13 community colleges.
And that’s just scratching the surface of a school that is at once the “Harvard of Car Tech,” as well as a springboard for thousands of people earning credits to transfer to four-year schools.
“I want to be an elementary education teacher and decided on ACC because of cost, location and small class size,” says Roxanne Elsner, who entered the school after losing a 27-year career in banking and finance to downsizing.
Jefferson County benefits from having three high-quality community colleges in its midst that educate thousands of people a year and help ensure a supply of skilled workers.
Arapahoe’s main campus is in Littleton; Red Rocks Community College is in Lakewood; and Front Range Community College has a campus in Westminster, serving the northern part of Jefferson County.
President Obama’s unprecedented decision to invest $12 billion at community colleges across the country over the next 10 years bears witness to just how important the schools are in delivering training needed by employers and workers seeking new careers or enhanced skills.
Front Range, for example, has seen a surge in enrollment. The college, which had about 8,600 full-time students in 2007, saw a year-over-year enrollment increase of more than 25 percent across its four campuses in fall 2008. At its Westminster campus in Jefferson County, enrollment spiked 40 percent.
“It’s nice to be recognized for the place we play in economic recovery,” says Colleen Jorgensen, vice president of instruction at Red Rocks Community College, where enrollment is up 20 percent.
And it’s not just students who can reach out to the colleges for assistance. Businesses, too, seek assistance training current and future workers.
In fall 2009, for example, Red Rocks launched a wind-turbine maintenance and repair program in consultation with Wazee Wind, a Denver-based company that provides maintenance for wind farms.
The associate’s degree helps prepare student for certification as “wind smiths,” including training them to scale the heady heights involved in the job as well as in other energy-related positions.
“There are a lot of related technologies out there that would have a similar skill set,” Jorgensen says.
Businesses clearly value the relationship. In January 2009, Suncor Energy Foundation donated the first of three $100,000 grants to Red Rocks to expand the college’s training facilities for process operators and craft technicians, key roles in the energy field. The money also provides scholarship funds for students at Red Rocks.
Suncor is a Canadian energy company with operations in Colorado.
“Creating partnerships between employers and community colleges is key to keeping pace with the growing demand for skilled technicians to advance Colorado’s New Energy economy,” says Dr. Michele Haney, Red Rocks president.
Story by Sam Scott
Photo by Staff
Current Weather Conditions In Golden, CO (80401)
Clear and Windy, and 34 ° F. For more details?
Click here...
