Star Tech: The Next Generation
The sky’s the limit for IT and other technical degree holders trying to land jobs in this economy, educators say.
by Lynne Hermansen
You don’t hear the word “desperate” much when it comes to the need for hiring in this economy. But educators throughout the Kansas City metro area are sensing a growing desperation among some businesses seeking qualified workers with the proper training and skills for technical-based career paths.
In response, community colleges, technical schools and for-profit training centers are developing programs to meet the rapidly evolving business needs and produce workers ready to dive in. They’re offering certificate programs that are shorter and more intense than a normal bachelor’s degree track—or even an associate’s degree timetable. They are also partnering with area businesses to train students for specific jobs within particular companies.
“Without the skilled workers, the situation has gotten so dire that companies are calling the school,” Debbie Goodall, president of Metropolitan Community College’s Business & Technical campus, said. “But unfortunately, we are unable to free the students until they complete the program.”
More well-trained employees are needed as electric utility linemen, machinists and IT professionals. The current work force is aging and heading towards retirement, and programs to prepare the next wave are expensive, according to school officials. Goodall said the demand has been difficult to keep up with, given the limitations of resources and budgets to fund up-to-date programs. She also said that too many prospective students fail to understand that not all manufacturing jobs are being shipped to China.
That has led the school to rethink and reconfigure its program, and they launched a new one on March 4 with 30 students, and a significant waiting list to get in. MCC has also begun to refocus on area high school students in various robotic, industrial-related, and tech classes, along with the Blue Valley Caps Program in the Blue Valley School District.
“This gives students some more clarity, so they take the courses they need in high school to lead them to the take the right courses in their post-secondary schools,” she said. “There is a misperception that if you don’t have the academic skills, then you can just go to tech school.”
Centriq Training in Leawood has also refocused and upgraded its training courses. Until recently, Centriq had only trained IT professionals and worked with departments inside companies around the metro in a one-week course. But they’ve moved to the consumer side to train workers for entry-level IT jobs, and have begun to pay attention more to the younger work force and high schools.
Ted Parker, a partner with Centriq, said they are teaching additional skills to make students employable; too many, he said, have learned the theory of their career fields, but not how to actually perform their jobs.
Parker said the recent surge in tech start-up companies in Kansas City had created more demand for qualified IT personnel, and more awareness of the field among high school students.
“We were somewhat evangelizing on opportunities in KC, as a lot of kids don’t know what IT even is,” he said, “But now there are not enough people to train for the IT jobs. And there is a great need for women in the field.”
Technology, he said, is seen as an exciting field, and “today it is such an integral part of businesses.” Cenrtiq has used its relationships with companies and IT professionals to develop a network of employers and help students achieve the entry level jobs in IT. And it can move them in quickly: Someone with little or no technical experience can take a 4½-week program, 5 days a week, 7 hours a day at Centriq and can expect a guaranteed entry-level job in a local IT company in network administration or software programming, as they connect the student directly with prospective employers.
“Broad-based fundamentals give you the job skills companies are looking for, and we are delivering that,” Parker said. “You don’t need to have a degree to be successful in IT.”
Community colleges are seeing an increasing, steady growth of people with bachelor’s degrees coming back to the smaller post-secondary schools to earn a certificate in a tech area. That helps give them a leg up in their chosen career.
“People are beginning to recognize and understand tech training is where the jobs are,” Goodall said. “There are a lot of highly educated baristas, but the industry technical jobs are where the money is at.”
Parker also believes technical, skills-based training is more relevant than a standard college program, as they are not training their students for the current market.
“These days the cost of education is not worth the degree” in some fields, he said. “You can’t trade the significant debt of a degree for a career.”