But for the graduates of some of Washington’s community and technical colleges, there’s no question about what to do next: They go to work.
Thanks to a number of innovative partnerships between businesses and the state’s technical and community colleges, graduates of certain programs leave school with a job already waiting for them.
Some of them actually started school with a job waiting for them.
These college/business partnerships cover a wide range of job types – everything from ship building and motorcycle repair to high-tech manufacturing and agriculture.
And they’re all over the state.
At Clark College in Vancouver, for example, the school works in collaboration with Insitu, the unmanned aerial vehicle company, to train workers in Southwest Washington. A recent grant funded by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges enabled the school to work with Insitu to train 80 workers.
Clark College works in collaboration with another company, semiconductor producer SEH America, for its Mechatronics program. The program teaches students how to troubleshoot, maintain and repair mechanical equipment controlled by electronic and computer systems.
In Moses Lake, educators at Big Bend Community College have partnered with high-tech companies to train workers for the region’s growing hub of data centers.
More recently, the school has worked with SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers, the joint venture between BMW and SGL Group that manufactures carbon fiber materials for BMW’s new electric cars.
“We’ve got a lot of growth in manufacturing jobs here,” said Clyde Rasmussen, dean of professional technical education at Big Bend Community College. “It’s pretty phenomenal.”
Similar collaborations exist at South Seattle Community College, Shoreline Community College, Lake Washington Institute of Technology in Kirkland and schools throughout the state.
Some of the employers that are partnering with schools include Vigor Shipyards; automakers Chrysler, General Motors, Honda and Toyota; Mentor Graphics; and motorcycle builder Harley-Davidson.
The partnership works well for the employers because the schools have the facilities needed to train workers without shutting down production lines. At Big Bend Community College, the school may even bring in instructors from Germany with a background in composites, Rasmussen said.
The arrangement works well for the community because it means more people are employed. And it works for students because practical learning, which is at the heart of all of these partnerships, prepares them for the jobs they move into after they leave school. That’s because no matter how much time you spend reading about how to repair a car, there’s nothing better for learning than actually putting a car engine together.
Washington is going to need all of these partnerships and more if we hope to remain competitive with other states over the coming years. Employers are already having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill certain jobs, and they’re going to make decisions about where to locate manufacturing facilities based on where they think they can find the best-trained workforce.
In some cases, that means locating in places where the workforce is already trained and ready to begin work. In other cases, though, it could mean locating in a place that has the education system in place, whether or not the workers are already trained.
In that case, the old order could get flipped on its head.
Instead of graduating and then figuring out what to do next, a student might hear: Congratulations, you’re hired. Now it’s time to go to college.
Kris Johnson is president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s chamber of commerce.
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