More students key to preventing out-migration, head of colleges says
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GONZALES — The head of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System said Thursday the key to stopping the state’s out-migration of workers is the enrollment of more students.
Joe May, LCTCS president, told the Ascension Chamber of Commerce there are 52,000 students enrolled in the system, but to put the brakes on workers leaving the state, the enrollment in technical and community colleges needs to be 160,000.
Graduates of four-year colleges and universities are leaving Louisiana because there are not enough technical college graduates to support their work, he said.
“We don’t have enough technical workers to support engineering jobs, so the engineers leave and we end up sending our two-year graduates out of state, too,” May said.
“We need to stop that trend, and to do that, we need to enroll 160,000 students a year,” he said.
Technical and community colleges have grown at a rate of 11.9 percent on the 53 campuses throughout the state since spring 2007, “but that’s not fast enough,” May said.
There are 100,000 vacant jobs in Louisiana, but they require workers with knowledge and training, May said.
“Our economy requires that 80 percent of the people have post-secondary education, but only about 20 percent of the population earns any college credits,” he said.
In Texas, May said, there are 1.19 students enrolled in a technical or community college for every student enrolled in a four-year institution.
In Louisiana, the ratio is 0.35 to 1.
May praised Gov. Bobby Jindal’s work-force initiative and said the Louisiana Community and Technical College System is implementing a new policy called the “Day One Guarantee.”
This means, he said, LCTCS guarantees that its graduates would have the ability to fill the open jobs in the state, “or we will retrain them if they can’t.”
Joe May, LCTCS president, told the Ascension Chamber of Commerce there are 52,000 students enrolled in the system, but to put the brakes on workers leaving the state, the enrollment in technical and community colleges needs to be 160,000.
Graduates of four-year colleges and universities are leaving Louisiana because there are not enough technical college graduates to support their work, he said.
“We don’t have enough technical workers to support engineering jobs, so the engineers leave and we end up sending our two-year graduates out of state, too,” May said.
“We need to stop that trend, and to do that, we need to enroll 160,000 students a year,” he said.
Technical and community colleges have grown at a rate of 11.9 percent on the 53 campuses throughout the state since spring 2007, “but that’s not fast enough,” May said.
There are 100,000 vacant jobs in Louisiana, but they require workers with knowledge and training, May said.
“Our economy requires that 80 percent of the people have post-secondary education, but only about 20 percent of the population earns any college credits,” he said.
In Texas, May said, there are 1.19 students enrolled in a technical or community college for every student enrolled in a four-year institution.
In Louisiana, the ratio is 0.35 to 1.
May praised Gov. Bobby Jindal’s work-force initiative and said the Louisiana Community and Technical College System is implementing a new policy called the “Day One Guarantee.”
This means, he said, LCTCS guarantees that its graduates would have the ability to fill the open jobs in the state, “or we will retrain them if they can’t.”
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