Adult ed enrollment skyrockets

OXFORD HILLS — In what may be a sign of the times, enrollment in job skills classes Oxford Hills Adult Education shot up 50 percent from fall, 2007, to fall, 2008.

During the same time frame, 131 adults sought either a high school diploma or a general equivalency diploma (GED), a year-to-year increase of 57 percent.

Although Adult Ed Director Jane Courcy says GED students tend to be overwhelmingly male, and in their early 20s, recent enrollments have included both genders, with ages ranging to people in their 60s.

“People who don’t have at least a GED are finding in today’s job market that they really need that credential,” said Courcy.  “The challenging economy means that we expect to see continued high numbers of adults seeking our services for academics, job skills, college transitions, and more.”

Most popular, she says, are all computer-related courses, as well as certificate programs, which can lead directly to marketable skills in health care and truck driving.

Total enrollment in local adult education — which includs programs in SADs 17 and 39, jointly administered by Courcy — is up 30 percent year to year.  Although diploma and job skills classes are in high demand, serving 360 and 267 people, respectively, this past fall — enrollment is essentially flat for other types of courses.

From fall, 2007, to fall, 2008, enrollment in college preparation classes was up 3 percent, to 70 students, while enrichment classes — such as photography, or dog obedience — was up 5 percent, to 173 students.  Meanwhile, registration for literacy classes fell 29 percent, to 51 enrollments.

Courcy notes that the Oxford Hills area leads the statewide tends.  Although up 30 percent year-to-year in all categories, total enrollment is up 50 percent since 2006.

In a recent survey of 107 adult education programs in Maine (in which 54 submitted data), enrollment is up 29 percent, statewide, since 2007, and up 33 percent since 2006.

According to Jeffrey Fantine, the state director of adult ed, job skills classes also lead the way, with enrollment up 100 percent statewide, to 5,391.  Across Maine, enrollment in college prep. classes are up 115 percent in the last year, while enrichment and GED courses are up 6 percent, each.

Both Courcy and Career Center Director Jim Trundy agree that much of the enrollment spike is due to recent “worker displacements” following the closure last spring of Burlington Homes and Eco-Building Systems, plus additional layoffs at Keiser Homes.

Courcy notes that many adult ed students are referred to her following Career Center assessments.

We all work together, she said, counting the Western Maine College Campus — which offers classes for both the University of Maine at Augusta and Central Maine Community College, in Auburn — in the triangle of local educational support.

        

"It all goes hand-in-hand,” says Courcy.  “We can’t have jobs without job skills.  We’re all spokes in the same wheel.”

According to Courcy, she expects 910 people will attend some form of adult education class during the current academic year. With more than 1,840 separate enrollments, each student is taking, on average, two classes.

Still, while Trundy and Courcy agree that displaced workers have led new enrollments and skew the average student age older, Trudy says he’s not yet giving all the help at his disposal.

Last fall, the Career Center got a $149,107 National Emergency Grant designed to help it train displaced workers for jobs in new fields.  That’s enough to help 54 former employees of the area’s defunct modular home builders but, so far, only 20 eligible people have taken advantage of the program.

“If any of those workers still haven’t found the jobs they are looking for, they should come in and see us,” says Trundy, “even if they have since found work somewhere else.”

Of course, those prospective students should enter with a modicum of patience.  The career center is getting more and more referrals from state agencies, while response time from those agencies has shriveled up, says Trundy.   Meanwhile, the center’s four job search computers are booked solid five to six hours per day, he says.

“There used to be days when we had very minimal traffic coming in,” says Trundy, “but it’s been steadily increasing since last summer.”

Perhaps ironically, funding for adult education is in danger even while the need appears to be greater than ever before.

All enrichment programs must be self-funding, but, by law, Oxford Hills Adult Ed cannot charge tuition for GED and diploma students. 

Following a 3 percent increase in 2007, and no funding change last year, Courcy’s annual budget now stands at $384,950.  Most of that comes from state subsidies, local tax assessments, and federal grants.

However, Maine’s current revenue crisis is expected to carve 5 percent from Courcy’s $127,000 state subsidy this year, and at least that for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Because federal grants are often tied to state spending, the real hit could total as much as 10 percent, says Courcy.

“We are mandated legislatively on what we can charge and can’t charge,” says Courcy.  “Most of our services are free, by law.

“We think we provide a real good bang for the buck, in terms of what we contribute to the local economy by helping people increase their job skills, by working with area businesses to offer training tailored to the type of workers they need,” says Courcy.

Because money for adult education comes directly from the state, and is not part of the general purpose aid reductions now being debated in Augusta, it’s still unclear what legislators will do to those dollars.

For now, Courcy is holding her breath.

“It should all shake out in the next couple of weeks,” she said.