Business is booming at vocational institutions that make students job-ready in a matter of months, not years
By Aaron Gifford
Gen Z is making blue-collar cool again.
While many traditional college programs across the country struggle with enrollment losses, business is booming right now at vocational institutions that make students job-ready in a matter of months, not years.
According to the National Student Clearinghouse, enrollment at vocational institutions to include community colleges and agricultural and technical schools increased by 16% last year — or 112,000 students — from 2022.
Local institutions are also witnessing a trend.
At Onondaga Community College, enrollment went up across 15 different programs in the past 12 months, including surgical technology, automotive technology, construction management, fire protection technology and electromechanical technology, said Roger Mirabito, OCC communications director.
Bryant & Stratton has maintained two campuses in the Syracuse area at a time when small colleges in the region, including Cazenovia College and Wells College, have closed. Mainly a two-year institution, Bryant & Stratton’s network technology program, which prepares students to become network technicians, is highly regarded.
Cayuga Community College added an electro-mechanical systems fundamentals “micro credential” program, which provides instruction on the operation of hydraulics, pneumatics, electrical motor controls and precision measurement tools in industrial settings. The institution also offered drone-flying instruction at its Fulton campus.
SUNY Morrisville opened as a traditional agricultural and technical institution but has evolved over time to keep up with the needs of New York state’s ever-changing workforce. All 38 students in its renewable energy major last year were recruited by local, regional and national employers, said Anthony Contento, dean of the school’s agriculture, business, and technology programs.
“Clean energy is one of the fastest-growing fields in New York state,” Contento said, “and we’re a known commodity. With Micron coming and the I-18 project, jobs are waiting for them.”
In recent years, SUNY Morrisville has focused on offering “stackable credentials” where students can earn industry-certified credentials while also applying those credits toward associate or bachelor’s degree programs. The cannabis-specialty crop certificate program can be completed in one year and its 24 credits can also be applied toward a degree in horticulture.
“We know cannabis is big now, but we also know it’s not going to be big forever. The idea is to offer training that can be applied across agriculture and horticulture, so you can also go into greenhouse management,” Contento said.
He added that most SUNY Morrisville students elect to take at least one class within the computer information technology program regardless of their major.
A video game programming certificate course of study was added this past year and there are plans to add certificate programs in diesel technology and agricultural engineering within the next year.
Theresa Kevorkian, SUNY Morrisville vice president of institutional advancement, said while workforce training is a high priority, the school has not abandoned its commitment to the academic components of degree programs. Math is critical to developing problem-solving abilities, English is important for communication skills and the sciences can be applied universally to most vocations.
“You can treat the trades as an academic subject,” she said. “It’s important to break down the notion that it’s not one or the other.”
New York state’s higher education system recently launched a public information campaign — “Learn a Trade at SUNY.” The website notes that SUNY campuses in every region of the state offer low-cost certificate or associate degree programs in construction and manufacturing; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC); culinary arts; animal care; automotive; welding and machining; computer and IT support; and health care and medical.
The website also notes that interest in vocational training has increased at the high school level: Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) programs across the state reported an enrollment spike from 38,000 in 2018 to 42,000 in 2022.
Career and technical education (CTE) has enjoyed a renewed interest in recent years as college enrollment gradually decreased.
According to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, college and university enrollment went down by about 1.5 million students or 7.4%, in the past decade. Much of the decline can be attributed to demographics like lower birthrates and population shifts in different states, though increasing costs, uncertain job prospects and culture war issues also play a role.
At the federal level, lawmakers have introduced a variety of bills supporting workforce development programs and CTE. While there are currently about eight million job vacancies in the United States, labor experts predict that by 2030, 39 million American workers will be displaced by automation or artificial intelligence.
Expanding the Pell Grant program, which has traditionally benefited college and university students, to include shorter-term certificate programs is a popular idea with both Republicans and Democrats.
The “One Door to Work” bill asks the federal government to temporarily allow local social services departments in some states to share facilities with career counseling, training and referral agencies. If the pilot program proves to be a success after five years, the one-stop shop could become a national standard for incorporating support services with workforce development functions.
The Youth Workforce Readiness Act proposes the creation of career exploration and training partnerships between high schools and local employers.
And the Workforce Data Act seeks shared data services within states so federal labor officials can develop industry standards based on their observations of which career training programs throughout the country are working and which ones are not.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Indiana) recently told fellow members of the Senate’s Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee that high school guidance counselors need to do a better job on presenting CTE options to students.
“The guidance counselors were stigmatizing stuff we’re talking about,” Braun said during the June 12 hearing. “It’s got to start with transparency, like a portal in every state that shows the high-demand, high-wage jobs, so parents and kids can see it.”
Matthew Dickerson, a business development and strategy officer at Mid-South Extrusion in Monroe, Louisiana, provided examples of partnerships between manufacturing businesses, community colleges and even high schools. He’s working with the learning institutions to build a website that features virtual tours of the workplaces that will offer CTE programs to local students.
“They can tour our manufacturing facility and a dozen others without ever leaving their classroom,” he said.
Locally, Micron has established local partnerships to prepare students for careers at the future computer chip plan that will be located in Clay. The project is expected to create up to 50,000 jobs. Professors are currently working with Micron officials to tailor programs and certificate courses to future job descriptions. And a clean room simulation facility is being added to the Onondaga Hill campus to provide hands-on training so graduates will be job ready when Micron’s 2.4 million square foot clean room opens.
For middle school students, Micron previously hosted a “chip camp” at OCC, where participants learned about semiconductors as they built circuits, straw towers and rockets. And for students who want to pursue higher-level degrees that are required for certain engineering and management jobs at Micron, Syracuse University is offering direct transfer admission to OCC students in various STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs.
OCC’s website highlights Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra’s reason for selecting Central New York over other regions throughout the country.
“We chose this location for many reasons — but most importantly — Central New York offers a rich pool of diverse talent, including communities that have traditionally been underrepresented in technology jobs.”
