Thanks for sharing your personal experience on this. I have a neighbor whose son found an apprenticeship while still going to high school to learn welding and last I heard, he was making in the area of $18.00 per hour. I think it is important to share real-life stories like this.
Additionally, I found this older article from HuffPost dated 10-5-10: "Obama Addresses White House Summit On Community Colleges:"
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called Tuesday for community colleges to produce an additional 5 million graduates by 2020 as he convened a White House summit to spotlight the two-year institutions he said are more important than ever to the country's competitiveness.
Calling them the "unsung heroes of America's education system," Obama said community colleges "may not get the credit they deserve, they may not get the same resources as other schools, but they provide a gateway to millions of Americans to good jobs and a better life."
Obama made his comments in the East Room at the start of a daylong meeting with officials from some of the nation's 1,200 community colleges along with businesses and philanthropies. It was the first such gathering at the White House.
Jill Biden, herself a community college teacher and wife of Vice President Joe Biden, presided. The purpose was to boost the schools that provide millions of students with skills training and a less expensive path to a college degree – even as they're increasingly challenged by climbing enrollments and high dropout rates."
Full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/community-college-summit-_n_750402.html
Also interesting is Ed Begley Jr's piece on Huff Post dated 10-18-10: "Community Colleges and the Green Economy:"
I don't want to make this post long, so I'll just snip a portion here:
"Four years ago, when U.S. and international windpower companies began flocking to north-central Oregon, Columbia Gorge Community College saw a gap between the local workforce and the technical skills needed to build and operate the turbines. The 5,800-student college quickly set up a six-month training course to meet the industry's short-term needs, then worked closely with employers to develop a renewable energy technology program including a two-year degree. This is exactly the type of opportunistic challenge that community colleges are in a unique position to address. Today hundreds of Columbia Gorge graduates are working for the area's constantly-expanding windpower companies, and the national windpower industry recognizes the college as one of the premier workforce development programs in the country."
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-begley-jr/post_1084_b_767373.html
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