Our Message / 2010 - 2011

The Seattle Community Colleges deliver skills for today’s jobs

The jobs that will get us out of the recession are not the jobs we lost going into it. The Seattle Community Colleges offer education and training leading to jobs with openings today and to careers in high-demand fields for tomorrow, including healthcare, clean energy and green jobs, business services, electronics, and information technology.

Why skills matter

• In April 2010, Harvard economist Lawrence Katz testified before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee that more than any other time in history, unemployment is concentrated in permanent job losses created by structural changes in the economy. According to Katz, “These long-term structural labor market problems suggest that substantial mismatches between the skills and aspirations of job losers and the skills requirements of the new job openings are likely to emerge as the economy recovers.” Similarly, in August 2010, the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve Board reflected concerns that skills mismatches are contributing to slow employment growth in the current recovery.
• In October 2010, the State Workforce Board released the results of its 2010 survey of employers across the state. The bottom line is, even with continuing high unemployment, employers are still having difficulty filling certain jobs. Almost 11,000 King County firms (nearly one-fifth of them) were unable to fill positions because they couldn’t find skilled workers. Nearly 10% of those firms were forced to move some operations out of state to get the skilled workers they need.

In these tough times, there is no better time to start a new career

• Seattle Community College students choose from more than 1,900 courses and 135 workforce education programs, the largest in the state. We offer 80 short-term training programs to move students into the employment market quickly and up the career ladder.
• In 2009, 74% of our students found employment in the area’s top companies within 9 months of completing their programs. Even today, jobs go unfilled due to lack of skilled workers: Across the state, there are 8,000 job vacancies in health care, 2,600 in professional and technical services, 2,100 in manufacturing and 2,100 in installation, maintenance and repair occupations.
• While things are tough now, job openings are predicted in the future. According to the Center on Education and the Workforce, over the next 8 years there will be more than one million job vacancies in Washington State from both new jobs and retirements. Two-thirds of these vacancies will require post-secondary credentials.

Community colleges are the first and best choice for students seeking pathways to four-year and advanced degrees

• We provide high-quality instruction in small classes taught by experienced faculty.
• Our faculty members average 15 years of teaching experience with our colleges, and 70% of them have advanced degrees. Workforce education faculty come directly from industry and teach the skills needed for real jobs.
• 49% percent of our students are students of color – the greatest diversity in the state’s two-year college system
• 60% of our students work, 30% have dependents and 10% are single parents.
• 30 to 40% of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students at our universities are community college transfers.

Community colleges are a critical investment

Our communities and students depend on community colleges to get a livable wage job — and if they are already working, new skills for a better job.

• Many of our students are recent immigrants who need English and other basic skills. Our colleges uniquely reflect the urban diversity of the Seattle region, where one-fifth of our residents were born in another country.
• Our colleges are the major regional pathway to higher education and a baccalaureate degree for students of color.
• More than 40% of students who earn a baccalaureate degree in our state started their education at a community college.

Our colleges are the most efficient in the state

We have the fewest administrators compared with the number of students enrolled; we spend less than half as much on administrators as our state’s public universities and half as much as the national average for community colleges.

• While our instruction is high-quality, our cost of education per student is 35% to 60% of our state’s public universities.

Source:
  • National expenditures: "Trends in College Spending," 2009, Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability
  • Washington state expenditures: "Expenditure Efficiencies and the Community and Technical Colleges," Washington State Board for Community & Technical
    Colleges, Mission Study Task Force Meeting, April 2009, rev. December 2009

These critical investments are in jeopardy.

Over the past three years our budget has been cut by 23% while enrollments have risen more than 10%. While the cuts threaten our open door policy, we have continued to provide a high-quality education. However, the steps we have taken are temporary and we can’t continue down this path much longer.

• Many of our high-demand programs are full. This means students must move to other programs or take longer to graduate.
• For the first time ever, many courses and programs for Fall Quarter were full and closed in June.
• Last year several thousand students were put on waiting lists and did not make it into their courses or programs of choice.
• As funding has been cut, our ability to fund equipment, new curriculum and professional development to start new programs in growing fields has been vastly diminished.

Funding for Worker Retraining was increased, allowing us to meet the demand for unemployed workers seeking new skills; however the legislature funded this increase for only one year. Next July 1, 2011 funding will drop by 40%, even though unemployment is expected to remain at 9%.

We’re here for you. Don’t take our word for it. Talk to our students and they’ll tell you. We are turning around lives, our community and our economy.

The Seattle Community Colleges are in every neighborhood serving the needs of our neighbors, family, colleagues and friends – probably someone you know. We are committed to keeping our doors open to serving our community.

• We serve more than 51,000 students every year. This means that one in every seven families in Seattle has at least one member attending the Seattle Community Colleges.
• We have educated and trained more than 1.5 million people since the college district was established in 1967.
• We serve students at three comprehensive colleges, a vocational training institute and four specialized training centers throughout the city, and on a virtual campus with more than 9,500 distance learners.

Janet Grimley, former Asst. Managing Editor, Seattle P-I
Worker Retraining program - Web Design, Seattle Central

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Venita Vigil, Worker Retraining student
Seattle Central Community College

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