THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601110175
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
IT'S GETTING harder and harder to find a good job with just a high school diploma. But persuading students to move on to college isn't getting any easier.
So College of The Albemarle is banding together with the seven public school districts it serves to get out the word on the importance of higher education, and to smooth the transition from high school to a community college or university.
``The future's going to demand people that are much better educated and differently educated than we've had in the past,'' said Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Schools Superintendent Joe Peel. ``Mainly, we're trying to work together to raise people's awareness of the need for education beyond the high school diploma.''
COA and Camden, Currituck, Dare, Edenton-Chowan, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank, Gates and Perquimans schools have formed a ``school-to-work'' consortium that will seek a start-up grant and then coordinate efforts to put more students on a solid career path.
A resolution signed by COA President Larry Donnithorne and the seven superintendents says that only 15 percent of all jobs will be unskilled by the year 2000. That means about 85 percent of jobs will require skills beyond a high school diploma, and one out of five jobs will require at least a bachelor's degree.
A key reason for the higher skill level needed in most jobs is the growing use of technology in the workplace.
``It's making it essential that every student go beyond high school,'' Donnithorne said. ``That's a fact that most parents and, in fact, some high school teachers, just don't appreciate.
``The high school and the community college and the university are here and available to people.''
A recent survey showed that many community college graduates starting out earn as much or more than new workers holding bachelor's degrees, Donnithorne said.
``Supply and demand are telling us through the effect on wages that the labor markets are very short on people that have these technical skills,'' he said.
But COA sometimes has trouble filling its vocational and technical classes. ``Last year, we had a very limited number in the machine shop,'' said Stanley Nixon, department chairman for career training education. ``It's a cycle.''
An automotive class didn't even run this year because only three students signed up for it, Nixon said.
To get more students to pursue higher education in any form, the consortium aims to:
Give students a clear, accessible and attractive pathway to the workplace.
Provide ``top quality'' academic and vocational/technical instruction.
Give students the skills they need to pursue higher education and other lifelong learning.
Provide work-based learning in school.
Donnithorne and the superintendents began talking about collaborating last year and signed the school-to-work resolution in summer 1995. The group began meeting last fall and has been gathering monthly since, Donnithorne said.
The consortium will begin by seeking state-administered grants to prepare a marketing plan touting college training.
When the group gets off the ground, officials will begin working together on programs to move students from grade to grade and beyond.
``There's room for improvement in how we build a seamless curriculum from kindergarten through college,'' said Perquimans County Schools Superintendent Randall Henion. ``We can have a pathway for all children to be prepared to enter the world of work.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Stanley Nixon, department chairman for Career Training and Education
at College of the Albemarle, in the garage that housed the defunct
automotive program.
by CNB