Back To School Not Just For Kids Any More
In a recession, there are definitely areas that decline due to decreased economic activity, such as home building or consumer spending.
But there are those “recession-proof” businesses that actually benefit from a troubled market, one of which is education. Overall, enrollment in secondary education programs is up across the United States. But under the radar job training programs are also seeing an influx of students looking for opportunity in a dreary job market.
Peak Interest
Take Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical School in Franklin as an example. Five years ago, the continuing education program there would attract approximately 200 students per semester.
Now, with unemployment straddling 10 percent, nearly 800 area residents attend career training classes and courses each semester. They’re looking to acquire new computer programming skills to improve their position at their current workplace or they’re trying to find new careers.
But pinpointing where the growth sectors will be in 2010 and beyond is tricky, even for Marc Koczwara, director of the school’s continuing education program.
“A lot of people ask me, ‘What shall I get training in to get a job?’ Frankly, I don’t know,” he said.
Even the buzz industries have their problems. Take green energy, which is heralded as a future area of job growth. Koczwara said the field hasn’t reached the point where it’s able to offer a large number of new jobs.
“There are some areas of growth, just it’s not an overwhelming one,” he said. “Most are brown jobs with a green twist on them.”
While there’s a growing demand for photovoltaic solar panels installers, energy auditors and weatherization professionals, any announcement of huge percentages of growth in those fields aren’t exactly what they seem.
“If they told you it has grown by 200 percent and they started with 10 workers, you now have 30 people,” Koczwara said.
Current project managers don’t need a whole lot of special training to get into the green economy field, they just need to be brought up to speed on the products and processes involved.
“A project manager can manage a green project as well as a traditional one,” Koczwara said.
But many local colleges and community colleges are projecting interest in green careers. One recent example is Mount Wachusett Community College of Gardner, which is launching a new academic program in energy management that will enable students to earn an associate’s degree. The college has also partnered with Leominster Center for Technical Education, which is located at Leominster High School, to share some laboratory space and equipment. The college is looking to expand partnerships with other technical schools in the state, as well as partnerships with municipalities for students to apply their learning to energy conservation measures.
In its announcement of the program, MWCC cited a 2009 Clean Energy Economy Report from the Pew Charitable Trusts that labeled Massachusetts as one of just 12 states in the nation that have “large and growing clean energy economies.”
Staff Development
While workforce training is partly about helping out-of-work people find new careers, it’s also about helping businesses prepare their existing workers for growth in the future. One avenue that could be in jeopardy that helps businesses accomplish this goal is the state’s Workforce Training Fund.
The Workforce Training Fund was created in 1998 to provide resources to state businesses and workers to train current and newly hired employees.
Declining tax revenues that have affected all departments of state government also touched the Workforce Training Fund in late 2009. The most recent awarding of funding grants, made in November, was accompanied by the announcement of major changes to the program. The changes included restricting grant recipients from reapplying within a five year window as well as capping grants at $125,000. The maximum grant amount had previously been $250,000.
Also, the changes give priority to applications that are focused on employee skills attainment and achievement of transferable and measurable skills.
BigBand Networks Inc. of Westborough recently benefited from a $137,996 state Workforce Training Fund grant, which allowed the company to invest in training that provided its managers with additional leadership skills and tools to coach and develop the skill sets of its employees, according to Steven Stowe, a human resources official at the company. The grant also allowed the company to invest in Six Sigma and Project Management programs for the company’s engineering employees, managers and other staffers.
“Most companies have recognized the need for continuous improvement and are strategically investing in human capital and training programs to compete in the global economy. Companies need to invest across their entire infrastructure, including accounting, finance, customer service and engineering,” said Stowe, who sees jobs growing across multiple functions in the high tech and telecommunications industries.
However, he acknowledged that “today’s economy can make it challenging for companies to make an investment in these kinds of programs.”
The Workforce Training Fund program could face a fight for refunding when the program goes up for reauthorization by the legislature in fiscal 2011. It’ll be essential that the lawmakers hear from those who’ve benefited from the program, according to Michael Taylor, director of Workforce Development of the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.
“I’m confident the business community will step up to make their support for the program known and to have it funded again,” he said.
Brian Goslow is a freelance writer based in Worcester.
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