Trade programs are ascendant thanks to rising student interest and a federal government demanding that colleges and universities refocus their programs on robust career preparation.
Scott Ralls, a longtime academic leader across North Carolina and current president of Wake Tech Community College, is seizing the momentum by building career-focused pathways through upskilling and stackable credentialing.
“I think we’re one of the most ‘and-focused‘ colleges. If you’re organized in the right way, it doesn’t have to be skills, credentials or academic degrees. It can be everything,” he says. “We’ve become a little bit like a skills graduate school in some ways for many people who already have degrees.”
Wake Tech, the largest of North Carolina’s 58 community colleges, serves more than 72,000 students. More than 20% already possess a postsecondary credential and are pursuing a non-degree industry certification.
Ralls views Wake Tech as a “ladder” college for the region, funneling high school graduates and mid-career adults toward in-demand careers located throughout North Carolina.
One of its most successful programs is in the biopharmaceuticals space, which offers an accelerated, non-credit certificate program. Students who complete the program can earn an associate degree and an industry-recognized certificate. Students can then transfer their credentials to East Carolina University to complete a bachelor’s degree.
A key to the program is its industry partners. Biotechnology company Amgen, which recently pledged to invest over $1.5 billion in its facility located 15 minutes from Wake Tech’s campus, offers a paid internship program, on-the-job training and is forecasted to hire about 750 people in the region.
“We’re different than Duke in that we both contribute greatly to our communities, but in very different ways,” Ralls says. “What we’re trying to provide our students are the skills and degrees that allow them to get jobs and move forward in our region. We’re not the magnet that pulls people in, but nobody pulls people up to the degree that we do.”
Here, President Ralls explains how important it is to blend different credential offerings into a cohesive “ladder.”
Enhancing work-based learning
Wake Tech collaborates with approximately 160 employers in registered apprenticeship programs. Ralls is particularly focused on how to enhance students’ work-based learning with simulation training.
Wake Tech will begin construction on a $117 million, three-story simulation hospital. The college currently offers simulated training for students learning to operate drones and first responders.
“There are some things you can do fully online, but for a lot of things that are out there, there has to be a physicality to it,” he says. “You have to have professors and instructors who understand work-based education, but you also have to have the kinds of equipment and resources or replications of what people are going to see when they step into the workplace.”
