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| Bush Presses for Better Job
Training at
Community Colleges
By Desair Brown ARNOLD, Md. -- President Bush visited Anne Arundel Community College Wednesday to highlight a $250 million initiative designed to boost job training and development resources at community colleges around the nation. On a stage in the college’s crowded gym, Bush steered a small panel that included Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich and college President Martha Smith into an hour-long conversation on how the funds could help to double the number of trained workers for available jobs. “We spend about $16 billion a year on work force training, except only about 200,000 people got trained,” said Bush. “It's not a very good record.” Bush’s initiative, enacted by Congress in fiscal year 2005, is meant to increase the nation’s skilled workforce and fund partnerships between businesses and community colleges, which have the capacity to adjust their curriculums to meet the needs of employers. Linda Schulte, a college spokeswoman, said the president chose Anne Arundel Community College as a platform for his proposal because “he values our program.” Schulte said the college, which enrolls more than 55,000 students in credit and noncredit programs, has one of the largest workforce programs in the country. The college’s job training and professional development unit involves more than 30 programs ranging from careers in nursing to retail.
Last year, 97 of the college’s allied health students were hired at Anne Arundel Medical Hospital, said Joyce Philip, the hospital’s vice president of human resources and a panel participant. “When skill sets are required, we know we can go to our community college,” she said. Smith, who’s been president of the college for 11 years, said it offers short-term programs to meet the specific needs of the workforce every year. Among them are programs in entrepreneurial studies and business enterprise. “It’s such a hopeful system, and it’s working,” she said. Panelists Jeannetta Smith, a student at the community college, and Elliott Ward, a student at Baltimore City Community College, discussed their own use of training opportunities to make career changes and earn more money. Smith said she enrolled in the college to advance from a licensed practical nurse to a registered nurse, which she said would mean a 50 percent salary increase at Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown, Md. She graduates in May thanks to loans and Northwest’s tuition reimbursement program. “I’ll be working as a registered nurse and then, after that, the sky is the limit,” Smith said. “See, this person is living the American dream,” said Bush, calling student testimonies “stories that make sense.” He added, “This is what’s happening all across the country.” First-year student Joshua Watson, 19, said he saved up money from his summer construction job to attend community college, because he said it is “one of the best community colleges in the country.” After the president’s visit, the Annapolis, Md., resident said he’s no Bush fan, but the “president’s head is in the right place as far as education is concerned.” Copyright © 2005 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism
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