By J.D. Rottweiler, Ph.D.
You might believe from the headline that this article is about a city or county budget. It refers instead to the Cochise College budget, which seeks to serve the wonderful communities of Cochise County in new and better ways.
This week, the college Governing Board adopted the 2019-2020 budget. The budget sets the strategic direction for the college, which seeks to innovatively and positively impact the future of local citizens and communities.
The college is focused on moving the needle on workforce metrics to improve quality of life and the future economic viability of the county. Currently, only 33.8 percent of county residents of working age have an associate’s degree or higher. Economic experts believe that needs to be 60 percent for a county to survive in the new economy. Impacting this number is the college going rate of graduating high school seniors; according to Expect More Arizona, the percentage of Cochise County seniors enrolling immediately after high school is only 49. That needs to improve to about 70 percent.
The college’s budget provides resources intended to help address these challenges.
This year, the college will begin transitioning its recruiting staff to include college and career navigators embedded in local high schools to provide guidance and encourage students to look to the future. In addition, a scholarship guarantee for graduating seniors is funded by donations and serves as a carrot to entice students to consider Cochise College. The budget also provides resources to enhance student support services such as tutors and advisors, including the personnel necessary to implement the strategies of Complete College America, which I wrote about in a previous column.
Recognizing that seven in 10 jobs will require more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree, the college this year is rolling out a certification opportunity in construction, teaching participants to build a house by actually doing it. Students will obtain the skills necessary to obtain an entry-level position in the construction industry, which currently faces a shortage of workers. Once on the job, they may find other areas of interest in which they wish to specialize.
Similarly in healthcare, where short-term certified nursing assistant and medical assistant programs already prepare students to enter the workforce quickly, the college has implemented a stand-alone licensed practical nursing program that trains a student to work after one year of school. There is also now a pathway for students who earn the LPN, work for a while, and decide to return to school later to study to become a registered nurse.
This budget also includes an innovation fund, resources set aside to explore new opportunities. Two such programs are a police academy to train local and regional officer cadets to fill positions in the county, and agriculture to meet the needs of the region’s many ranchers and growers. The college also added a full-time early childhood education faculty member to prepare educators to work with children in critical stages of development, as well as a new faculty position in cybersecurity. Students can tackle short-term certifications or pursue two years of cybersecurity training that transfers to the University of Arizona’s National Security Agency-recognized program.
People are the most important raw material for business and industry today. But they need to have skills. Opportunities abound for citizens who are willing to improve their lives through education and training. As Cochise County’s primary higher education provider, it is Cochise College’s responsibility to try to impact those areas where education, training and opportunity intersect. Collectively we must choose to rise to the occasion.
J.D. Rottweiler is president of Cochise College. Contact him at jdr@cochise.edu.