Middle-skill jobs—those that require more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree—will likely drive California’s economic recovery, and local community colleges and trade schools are leading the way with training and placement support.
California, with a gross state product of $1.8 trillion, is the eighth-largest economy in the world. The current recession hit our state hard, but as we look to economic recovery, we must prepare our workforce for the jobs that will become available. Middle-skill jobs currently represent approximately 49 percent of jobs in our state, and they’re anticipated to be the largest share of future job openings.
Prior to the recession, California was already experiencing shortages of middle-skill workers in crucial industries. Much of the job creation fostered by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is taking place through the hiring of people in middle-skill jobs. Experts believe training the middle-skill workforce will be critical to our economic recovery and long-term success.
Addressing the need for middle-skill workers requires attention not only to educational opportunities for young people, but also for those already in the workforce. Fifty-eight percent of the people who will be in California’s workforce in 2020 were already working adults in 2005, long past the traditional high school-to-college pipeline. As the state’s economy recovers and hiring becomes common, Californians will have to continue their educations to possess the skills necessary to obtain good paying jobs.
Community colleges
California community colleges are the largest higher education system in the world, serving more than 2.9 million students each year. Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties are each home to a community college—College of Marin, Napa Valley College and Santa Rosa Junior College—and these three institutions work closely together to meet the educational needs of the local population.
Nanda Schorske, dean of workforce development and community partnership at College of Marin, says, “A fundamental economic development principal is to ramp up training programs so they don’t over produce for the workforce but supply enough people who are trained to match the demand of the labor market.” These community colleges work hard to stay ahead of the curve to develop programs to train people in emerging fields. In 2006, the California community college system stopped calling its training programs “vocational education” and shifted to “career and technical training” instead.
All three community colleges are trendsetters, offering solar technology and green building courses, which are classes that fill up quickly. Electric vehicle courses are also quite popular these days. Students receive an industry certificate after completing some programs but others have additional requirements, such as taking a national test for solar certification. Health occupations, green building, computer science and many other emerging fields are becoming more technologically advanced and will require employees to have some degree of math, science and English education that the colleges also offer.
Each community college has programs specific to its location, but between the three, they offer a wide variety of programs that include: business and information services, computer sciences, health sciences (including emergency medical technicians, nursing and dental), public safety and criminal justice, agriculture, viticulture, culinary arts, early childhood education, auto repair, court reporting, machine metals, environmental landscaping, solar technology, electric vehicle transportation and more.
Santa Rosa Junior College has the largest agricultural department of all the community colleges in the state, Napa Valley College had its working teaching winery bonded last year, and College of Marin had its organic farm design program quadruple enrollment last year after receiving a grant for sustainable food systems that enabled it to enlarge the project. All three are now working on an entrepreneur development program that encourages students to start small businesses. The state community college chancellor’s office funded the grant because, in this economy, so many people were looking for alternative ways to become employed, and there were many people trying to get their own companies off the ground. “When we hear students say they want to do something, we try to provide them with the support they need to make it happen,” says Schorske.
“One of the greatest challenges we all face is keeping our courses current. That means making sure the faculty is up to date on the latest information and making sure students have access to upgraded equipment,” says Chuck Robbins, director of economic and workforce development for Santa Rosa Junior College. With limited budgets, having up-to-date equipment isn’t easy. Community college funding is very complex, and many community colleges write grants every year to the chancellor’s office to support new and expanding programs. Lately, there have been more collaborative grant proposals among the three North Bay colleges. Community colleges are also starting to look for some funding outside of the system. Robbins, who was appointed by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to be a member of the local workforce investment board (WIB), recently worked with WIB staff to secure a grant from the federal government’s ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funds for the board. This type of public support helps to strengthen the work the community colleges are doing.
Beth Pratt, director of career and technical education programs for Napa Valley College, recommends that anyone interested in career training meet with a career counselor who can discuss the different types of programs ranging from several weeks to one- and two-year certificate programs to completion of an associate of arts degree. “The community colleges’ cost is still the best educational value at $26 per unit,” says Pratt, although there’s a chance the per-unit cost will be raised to $40 in the near future.
Empire College
Empire College was founded by Sonoma County civic and business leader Henry Trione in 1961. It’s said Trione couldn’t find enough trained accountants and secretarial help to staff his own thriving business, so he decided to start a school to train them. Over time, the college added new fields, including a law school in 1973. Today, two of the most popular programs train people for positions in the medical field (both front and back office positions) and to become paralegals, both through two-year programs. It has strong ties to the local community and even incorporates the needs of local organizations into its curriculum, recently adding a phlebotomy program in conjunction with Kaiser Permanente. Empire also collaborates with Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and has more than 150 externship locations at local medical facilities.
The husband and wife team of Roy and Sherie Hurd have been at the helm of this learning institution for 23 years. Roy (as president) and Sherie (as vice president) have helped to create a warm, family atmosphere, where students are nurtured through the process of getting an education and finding the right job. About 750 students attend the day or evening classes offered. Empire has an excellent record of success, with an 88 to 90 percent graduation and job placement rate (the placement rate used to hover at around 96 percent before the recession hit). Empire’s staff has had to work extra hard during tough times to make sure its students still have employment opportunities when they complete their schooling—and that means continuous community contact.
Empire College has a long-standing tradition of raising money for important community projects, many of them nonprofits focusing on children. Many of its students first learn about the work of the local agencies when they’re placed at an externship. One organization that’s hosted a number of accounting and administrative externs is Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County (CAP). Empire students working there have been so moved by CAP’s Sloan House (an emergency shelter for single homeless women and homeless women with small children), that when the program lost funding this year, the externs began planning an event to raise funds to keep the safe house open. Hurd’s voice conveys a motherly pride as she explains how the venture has morphed into a campus-wide fund-raising effort with a carnival in the works for this summer.
In 2007, Empire College received the Career College Association Community Service Award and, in 2009, the California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools selected it from among approximately 600 member institutions as School of the Year.
The faculty at Empire College teaches its students about qualities that are necessary for getting a job that compliments the technical skills they’re learning. “Sometimes, people who are geared toward IT tend to be task- rather than people-oriented,” says Sherie. She says the faculty teaches things like having a good attitude, the importance of being on time and the significance of outstanding customer service in addition to career-specific skills.
Culinary Institute of America, Greystone
Given the abundance of our local bounty, it’s no surprise that the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) would have a school in one of Napa Valley’s most majestic and historic buildings. CIA offers certificate and degree programs, continuing education courses, custom classes and conferences as well as various seminars for food and hospitality professionals, but it’s probably best known for its prestigious culinary education program. With more than 40,000 graduates working in every aspect of the food and hospitality industries and many a famous chef to CIA Greystone’s credit—including celebrity chefs Michael Chiarello, Anthony Bourdain and Cat Cora, to name just a few—Emily Massimi, supervisor of Greystone recruitment says, “The power of the school’s name and the caliber of the curriculum helps to open doors for graduates seeking jobs. The CIA is known as a leader in culinary education and has been named the world’s premier culinary college.” The St. Helena campus offers an associate of occupational studies (AOS) in culinary arts and an AOS in baking and pastry arts, and each degree can be obtained separately in 21 months. It takes only 30 weeks to complete the accelerated culinary arts certificate program or the accelerated wine and beverage certificate program, leading graduates to exciting opportunities within the world of food. (The CIA’s main campus at Hyde Park in New York also offers a bachelor’s of professional studies in culinary arts management or baking and pastry arts management.)
People from every state and even international students attend this prestigious academy. Externships take place at more than 1,100 approved sites and afford students with opportunities to work in a variety of food venues including upscale restaurants like Auberge du Soleil, Spago Beverly Hills, The French Laundry, Four Seasons and the Ritz Carlton, as well as cruise ships, the Food Network and even Disneyworld. The school operates as a nonprofit and offers financial aid to students who qualify.
Worth Our Weight
Upon her return to Sonoma County after working in New York, Evelyn Cheatham was asked if she was interested in starting a culinary program for incarcerated youth. She declined, but then realized she knew little about what it would entail. After a number of trips to the juvenile detention facility in Sonoma County, she realized that, though the outside world might have seen these youth as street smart, really they lacked many basic skills.
In 2004, Cheatham started working on a concept that came to fruition in 2006. To date more than 250 “at-risk” young adults have gone through her culinary apprenticeship program, called Worth Our Weight. The program is based in Santa Rosa, with participants ranging in age from 16 to 24. They’re referred to her program via social workers, parole officers and word of mouth. All have faced major challenges in life, including aging out of foster care, learning disabilities or extremely economically disadvantaged families. Cheatham’s mission for Worth Our Weight is to develop and sustain an apprenticeship program that comprises professional culinary basic training, organic farming, social skill development and elementary business management.
Cheatham learned her cooking skills through apprenticeships rather than attending culinary school. A native of San Francisco, she made her way to Healdsburg to work for Lindsey Shere, a contemporary of Alice Waters (and one of the founders of Chez Panisse), who opened the Downtown Bakery and Creamery in Healdsburg in 1987. Cheatham’s many restaurant contacts have come in handy, because she guarantees every person who completes her program a job in the industry.
Students in her program learn food preparation during the week and run a weekend café that serves up professional-quality fare and is open to the public. She teaches them the importance of establishing relationships with farmers, many of whom are “neighborhood” producers who bring their harvests to the program so seasonal delights can be made with local, fresh and organic ingredients. Her program fills a unique niche, and as executive director of the nonprofit program, Cheatham feels the experiences her students have can’t be measured on only one level of success. “These young people are learning where food comes from—that lettuce doesn’t just come from a bag or a burger from a window,” says Cheatham. Her program teaches more than just culinary proficiency, it offers life skills.
New horizons
If there are any positive aspects of this economic downturn, perhaps it’s that some people have used their time out of work to focus on a career change or have become engaged in additional training to further their employment opportunities and provide for an increased income over the long run. Their plan is to be poised for the jobs that will require more education than they currently have. Not all middle-skill occupations pay well or have meaningful advancement opportunities—skills are only part of the economic success equation—however, nationally, growth in demand for many middle-skill occupations has been fast enough to generate not only strong employment growth but also rapid growth in wages.
Regional research supports the connection between many middle-skill jobs and good wages. In California’s infrastructure sector, about 42 percent of jobs from 2006-2016 are expected to be at the middle-skill level with an average wage in 2009 of $41,868, nearly 15 percent higher than the state median wage. California is a leader in apprenticeship programs, where some 66,196 apprentices are registered in more than 675 programs, earning wages while they learn on the job.
It’s often said that getting an education can’t hurt you, and, once you possess the knowledge, no one can ever take it away. For those pursuing a new career path, they’re words to live by.
