In David Moltz’ September 11, 2009 article in Inside Higher Ed, Moltz describes a concern about community colleges deemphasizing funding for traditional skill trades within the manufacturing and construction fields in favor of new “green” job programs.

James Jacobs, chair of the Community College Research Center Advisory Board and president of Macomb Community College, is quoted in the article.

…James Jacobs, outside of Detroit, said it is key to understand a wide range of factors that influence how community colleges allocate resources to job training.

“I think there are a couple of trends going on simultaneously,” Jacobs said. “Given the belief that some have that community colleges should be helping people transition into the new economy, it is true that some kinds of community college programs and leaders are deemphasizing traditional skills trades and entry-level occupational areas. This is partially motivated by the fact that there are so few instructors in these areas. Many people can make more money in these fields than teaching them. Also, for many years in traditional unionized areas, you had a kind of competition from the unions who did their own training. So, for a community college to start a program for plumbers meant that, to the plumbers union, it was a threat. For those of us who do have a lot of these programs, we are faced with somewhat of a dilemma.”

Jacobs noted that, in his area, he does not see many jobs in welding, but he does see plenty of jobs in which welding is considered a required skill among many others. Offering programs that synthesize a number of skills together, he said, are of more value to students than narrow training programs. Jacobs believes that those who bemoan that traditional trades are being deemphasized may miss this logic.

“Knowing a little bit about welding gets you into many other construction jobs, even though there are not many jobs for welders,” Jacobs said. “It’s like Latin. People rarely get a degree in it, but it has useful applications everywhere. … People who say that colleges have turned their back on a potential area should know we’re not turning our back on the students. We don’t want them to just have a job but a career. We don’t have a lot of new ‘green’ technology programs. Mostly, it’s, ‘How can we make a certain skill set within this job more conscious of things like sustainability?’ In our case, most are directly related to the auto industry. Nobody who goes through these programs refers to them as ‘green’ jobs.”

--Read the entire article at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/11/trade (Site registration may be required.)