Career Center expands, gears adult classes toward job training

In the spring of 2008, the Columbia Area Career Center’s trade and industry coordinator realized the economy was deteriorating. So he decided to restructure the curriculum.

“I was thinking, ‘Nobody is going to be able to afford to take these classes just for personal enrichment,’ so I started gearing them more toward entry-level jobs,” Karl Christopher said.

For example, students in the beginner’s welding class used to focus chiefly on learning how to repair and construct objects themselves at home rather than how to apply their new skills as professional welders.

Christopher said he visits every class and talks to each student, doing a kind of informal research. He asks them who they work for and why they’re in the class. “While I used to get ‘I want to learn to do this or that,’ now it’s, ‘I want to learn to do more at work.’ The students were realizing this, and the companies started paying for some of the classes.”

During the first term after the redesign of the technical classes, enrollment decreased by 11 students to 63. But in the following semester, fall 2008, the enrollment jumped to 142 adults.

“There is an opportunity here that wasn’t there before,” Christopher said. “Except for us, here at the career center, who else is going to offer such classes? There are no other resources for people to go to.”

The original purpose of the career center, located next to Rock Bridge High School on South Providence Road, was to provide vocational and technical classes to high school students. But during the evening, the classrooms and their technology were not being used. Thus, the center started to offer evening classes for adults.

As the adult programs grew, people started inquiring about day classes. Because high school students occupy all of the classrooms during the day, the career center coordinators decided to build an additional building specifically for adult technical training.

After five months of construction, the 2,000-square-foot building opened on June 15. The new addition cost about $350,000 and was funded by a state construction-matching grant. The grant is a part of a 2004 school bond issue for $5.3 million.

In the summer, the career center usually has fewer courses than during the school year. Currently, the center offers just one technical adult class, the Plumbing Apprenticeship.

The plumbing program is a blended course of online, classroom and laboratory lessons. The students taking the course are seven men who work as full-time plumbers and electricians. In every case, their employers approached them and asked them if they would like to take the class tuition-free.

The course starts out with the basics, like how to use hand tools and power tools, so most of the information is familiar to the plumbers. Still, a couple of them had to retake one exam because they didn’t attain the minimum score of 80 percent.

“When we go through stuff, I realize that I don’t know as much as I thought,” Chris Walker said.

But it’s been a self-esteem builder. Central Missouri Plumbing, where Walker works, offered the opportunity to only five of its 40 plumbers. “Not everyone was offered to take the class, so I took it as a compliment,” said Walker, who has been a professional plumber for two and a half years. “It’s a nice touch from the bosses that are willing to pay, especially with the tough economic times.”

The other two students, Dustin Key and Clayton Strong, work for Midway Electric. Their employer asked all of its employees to take a course in the career center.

Key, who started working as an electrician about a year ago, said the class has been very useful especially in learning motor patrols and electrical theory – “all stuff I didn’t know,” he said. “I am happy Midway Electric asked us to take a course because it’s helpful, and I don’t have enough money to take a class on my own.”

Columbia Area Career Center
4203 S. Providence Road
(573) 214-3800
www.career-center.org
Classes price range: $249-$1,399