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September 25, 2000

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Maricopa Community College Graduates Boost the Economy and Themselves

Greater Phoenix - Community colleges are the “stuff dreams are made of.” Indeed, community colleges make dreams come true for many – from high school to college, from welfare to work, from upgrading skills to career changes. Just ask Brenda Williams who is a workshop facilitator for the Employment and Training Division of the City of Phoenix’s Workforce Information Network. “It would be difficult,” she said “to help people improve their financial futures without the association we have with the Maricopa Community Colleges. Displaced workers, people with low paying jobs or on welfare come to our office for help, hope and the fulfillment of dreams. Help is available through career assessments, upgrading or retraining. The hope and promise for their futures more often rests with their enrolling in classes at one of Maricopa Community Colleges, one of its Skill Center campuses or other Valley area training and educational institutions. This is the beginning reality of the dream.”

The Valley’s community colleges are “very user friendly,” Williams said. They are inexpensive, offer flexibility of class times, certificate programs, variety and choices and locations with ten colleges with numerous satellite locations and two skill center campuses. Williams has also established an excellent network and alliance with counselors at all of Maricopa Community Colleges locations.

Maricopa Community College District also has placed staff at various locations throughout Maricopa County to make access to training and education easier.

A lot of people that Williams comes in contact are at first a little frightened or intimated about returning to school and being in a classroom. Sometimes she said she only has to point people in the right direction and at other times “You have to give them a good swift kick. After a few days in the classroom, most of them tell me ‘Now that I am back in school, I want to take more classes or get a degree.’”

While coming to see Williams and enrolling in classes are major steps, the greatest step and greatest reward come when that displaced worker achieves success in the classroom, gets the job and receives that first paycheck. Everybody wins.

As Stan Grossman, Executive Director of Maricopa Sill Center, said, “This is the basis of the Maricopa Skill Center. In a very real sense, Maricopa Community Colleges and its skill center are a major artery for the life blood of economic success in Maricopa County.”

The economic impact of graduates of the Skill Center from July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2000 is phenomenal. The Center verified employment for 403 graduates during this time period. The average hourly salary was $9.02. The highest salary was $19.00 per hour for welding. The high for an annual salary yielded $39,520, and the average annual salary was $18,761.60.

The average economic impact of these 403 graduates yields a salary total of $7,560,924.80. Assuming a 20% tax rate, this generates a little over one and half million dollars in taxes - $1,512,184 to be exact. The cost of training these 403 new tax payers assuming 26 weeks of training costs $1,132,880 which is less than the taxes paid for one year. In other words, the expense of educating and training is returned in tax dollars in less than one year. It is even less when other factors are considered such as the reduction in welfare payments, unemployment payments, WIA subsidies, food stamps, childcare and other subsidies that people receive when they are unemployed.

That our economy is enriched by the Maricopa Community Colleges should come as no surprise. According to the American Association of Community Colleges, a community college graduate earns about $10,000 more per year than a high school graduate. Assuming an employment life of 45 or 50 years and assuming the salary spread of $10,000 remains constant, then a community college graduate would earn nearly one-half million dollars more than a high school graduate. It should also be noted that community college graduates are more likely to receive promotions and raises than high school graduates. Therefore, the community college graduate would no doubt earn much more than a half million dollars over the high school graduate during the course of employment.

It is not, however, just our economy that receives a boost. The boost to an individual’s self-esteem and self-worth is perhaps even more important. Williams, herself a graduate of Phoenix College (PC) and current President of the PC Alumni Association as well as founder of the African-American chapter of the Alumni Association, said “dramatic and wonderful changes happen to people when they can become self-sufficient.”

Grossman, too, can cite thousands of examples of people who have achieved economic freedom. Some of these success stories include Anthony, an at risk youth;

Rita, a widow whose only work experience had been in an unheated and unair-conditioned warehouse; Rose, who wanted to change careers while she was working for an electronics company and John, whose employer knew he had the talent and desire to move from dishwasher to cook. Today, they are all working at jobs they love, successfully supporting themselves and their families. These stories are like those of hundreds of the over 50,000 graduates of Maricopa Skill Center campuses. Graduates who acquire good skills training are able to enhance, change and empower their lives.

“The success of our graduates in finding jobs after graduation has a trickle-down effect on current students by increasing their enthusiasm for training and the promising job opportunities available. Over 97% of our graduates are hired in the fields of their choice. The majority of graduates have a job in their field within a few weeks of training.” Grossman said.

The Maricopa Skill Center trains anyone 16-years of age and older for entry-level positions. The open-entry, open-exit format allows students to enter and graduate according to their schedules and work at their own paces. All instruction is individualized; students build on the skills they bring to class and don’t spend time relearning what they already know. The average time needed to complete a course of study is six months. The Center is open 51 weeks a year and holds 51 weekly graduations. The main Skill Center campus is at 12th Street and East Buckeye Road with a satellite campus at 3000 North Dysart Road, Avondale. Tours are given every Tuesday and Thursday, at 9:30 p.m. at the main campus, and on Wednesdays at 9:30 at the satellite location. The tours provide an overview of all programs. For more information, call 602-238-4300 or check the web site: www.gwc.maricopa.edu/msc.

-MCCD-

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March 13, 2002