Kim Larson, foreground, gets some early-semester studying in at the Elkhorn campus of Gateway Technical College recently. Enrollment of full-time equivalent students is up about 4 percent at the local campus this fall. Terry Mayer/staff
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ELKHORN — Lynn Tometczak faced one of life’s crossroads, and the poor economy made it clear which path the Elkhorn-area resident should travel.
Tometczak had bumped around at various jobs while dealing with several knee operations during her 10 years in Walworth County.
But when the 57-year-old Racine native decided to take a leap of faith and return to school, her eight years as manager of the commissary department for Midwest Airlines in Milwaukee helped push her in that direction again in making her latest career choice.
“With the airlines, customer service was No. 1,” Tometczak said. “I always enjoyed that work, especially doing the charter flights for bands or sports teams. I always liked planning all kinds of events, and that opens your options up into many areas, whether it’s meetings, weddings or whatever.”
So, in spring 2010, Tometczak started attending Gateway Technical College as a full-time student — at least 12 credits — with the goal of getting an associate’s degree in hotel hospitality.
She is part of a statewide trend in which technical schools are projecting and/or seeing enrollment increases.
“Preliminary estimates are showing somewhere in the range of a 2 percent growth coming this fall,” said Daniel Clancy, president of the Wisconsin Technical College System. “I think there was some expectation there could be some drop (this fall), but I’ve heard more from our college presidents that those numbers still seem to be strong.”
That goes for Gateway, which has campuses in Elkhorn, Burlington, Racine and Kenosha.
As of Sept. 7, the overall number of full-time equivalent students was up 2.9 percent from last year at Gateway. And the FTEs at the Elkhorn campus had increased by 4.1 percent, with the head count up to 2,083.
A big part of that equation was a combined 10.7 percent increase in enrollment at Gateway during the recent summer semester, President Bryan Albrecht said, adding that the institution’s three-semester schedule and efforts to diversify degree programs have been keys to the school’s growth.
“We’re adding quite a few new degree programs, especially in the renewable, sustainable areas, degrees we did not offer a couple of years ago,” Albrecht said.
Some of these new degrees include geothermal technician, water quality technician and solar installation programs.
None of the new programs in the renewable/sustainable curriculum are offered at Elkhorn yet, but Mike O’Donnell said the campus is undergoing physical changes to accommodate and better serve more students.
“We are finishing up a new addition to our North Building that will house student services and a new library,” said O’Donnell, dean of the Elkhorn campus. “Once the current library space is vacated, it will be renovated to accommodate a Learning Success Center, which will encompass testing and special needs, academic support and adult basic education.”
Meanwhile, the average age of tech students — and Tometczak is an obvious example — also has risen in recent years, driven in part by the increased enrollments by displaced workers. At Gateway, the average age is 32, two years older than just five years ago.
“Dislocated workers have been a priority for us the past several years and will continue to be a major focus,” Albrecht said. “We do see there is still a high demand for services in the short-term training programs, those that are designed to engage people into the work force.”
For some displaced workers, the race is on to finish schooling before training money runs out.
Marilyn Putz has worked with the Department of Workforce Development for 27 years, where she manages the Workforce Investment Act.
Putz said tough conditions continue in the DWD’s southeast region, which also includes Kenosha and Racine counties.
“Typically, when people lose their job, they want to get back into the work force as quickly as possible, so they don’t always look at retraining options right away,” Putz said. “But when they aren’t getting interviews or offers, they consider job retraining. We’ve had a long waiting list since March 2010, mostly of dislocated workers.”
Displaced workers in their first year of training must apply for grants in year two through the WIA. However, allocations for all students were reduced when Congress completed its deficit-reduction plan earlier this year.
“We offer them help with career decisions and job searches, but we’ve only had enough funding grants for special situations, such as when a company goes out of business or undergoes mass layoffs and to support those already in training,” Putz said.
“Many displaced workers are looking for their WIA to cover short-term training,” O’Donnell said. “That is why welding, certified nursing assistant, medical assistant, community pharmacy technician and other technical diploma options are so popular and in demand.”
Tometczak said she had doubts about this new chapter in her life, but she doesn’t see how she could have made another choice.
“To survive in this economy, you have to have some kind of degree,” Tometczak said. “There are so many people looking for jobs. We will be working a lot longer these days, and I’m not ready to give up working.”
(Staff writer Rick West contributed to this story.)
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