Dr. Frieda Hill talks with Joseph Brown of Alabama Power Company and Chair of the Region 3 Workforce Development Board

By: John Zippert, Co-Publisher

Dr. Frieda Hill, Chancellor of Postsecondary Education in Alabama held a discussion with education, workforce development and community leaders, last Wednesday at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa.

This meeting or self-described ‘chat’ was one of a series that the Chancellor is holding in each regional workforce development area around the state. The purpose of the meeting was a forum for an informal discussion of how the division of postsecondary education is doing and how its efforts could be improved and strengthened. The Chancellor said input from these meeting would be included in her forthcoming strategic plan for the department.

More than a hundred local community, industry and educational leaders attended the meeting which was held in conjunction with the Region 3 Workforce Development Board which serves Tuscaloosa and surrounding counties including Greene County.

Chancellor Hill presides over department that has 21 community colleges (which award associate degrees), 4 technical colleges, a military institute and 90 instructional sites dealing with adult basic education and skills training. Last year, her department served 25,000 students and awarded 4,000 GED’s; as well as assisting 15,000 students annually to transfer to 4 year institutions.

Her department is the largest supplier of nurses in the state and offers 175 career-tech programs in technical fields paying high wages.

This is in a state where 800,000 adults, most of working age, do not have  a high school diploma or GED, out of a population of 4.7 million.

 Hill started the meeting by posing a set of questions that generated a response from the audience members. Among the questions were: what role can two year colleges play in creating a better quality of life in your region?; What are some of the workforce training needs in your area?; How can we better align K-12 through 4 year education?; What are the strengths, weaknesses and gaps in the current two year college system?.

The answers ranged across a wide spectrum with educators praising the system for its affordability, access and adaptability and community residents questioning if the system had sufficiently addressed barriers to students reaching education such as transportation, child care and drug use. The system was complimented on its dual enrollment programs with high schools, its personal touch with students and its Ready-to-Work and AIDT programs providing workers for industry.

Phillis Belcher, Executive Director of the Greene County Industrial Development Authority urged the Chancellor, “ to focus on the Black Belt counties, like Greene County, which need intensive assistance to bring up their educational and skill training levels.” Others pointed to the need to address the 40% drop out rate in Alabama high schools.

Many comments suggested improving the marketing of the community college system and its technical training programs to middle and high school students and giving them more hands-on experiences with the industrial/technical environment they will experience when they enter the world of work. The need for more career counselors at the high school level was also stressed.

 Some suggested more training in “basic work ethics” and “personal financial literacy” as ways to better prepare the workforce for industry and other employers.

Dr. Hill responded in part that her department had experienced 23.3% pro ration and a $125 million cut in the past two years which made it difficult to institute or even consider needed improvement that will require new resources to be effective.

This prompted Dr. Charles Nash, a part of the state’s higher education administration to suggest, “ as  private citizens and taxpayers we all need to examine what kind of tax system we want and how willing are we to pay for needed educational services to prepare our young people and the nation for the future.”

Dr. Hill invited people at the meeting and the public to continue to submit suggestions and ideas to the Department of Postsecondary Education, P. O. Box 302130, Montgomery, AL 36130; frieda.hill@dpe.edu; www.accs.cc.