Prime Sources of Career and
Technical Education
US Community Colleges

The community colleges of the United States are becoming increasingly attractive alternatives for international students seeking strong preparation for life and work. There are nearly 1300 community-technical colleges scattered across the 50 states of this nation.

Community-technical colleges are two-year, public-supported colleges initially dedicated to serving the population of a specific local area - usually a city, county, or regional cluster of counties. Now they are being challenged more and more to prepare local students for global citizenship and for productive participation in a global economy. Thus, they are steadily becoming well equipped to meet the needs of international students as well. More and more community colleges are welcoming international students. Many are offering special services to help international students grow accustomed to the U.S. system of education and way of life.

Unique Features that Assist International Students
The very features of the community college which have most assisted local students for whom the college was created are now becoming clear-cut advantages to international students as well:

1. Entry is easier
The 'open door policy' of the community college indicates that academic requirements are usually lower for admission than at most four-year institutions. This does not mean a lower standard for the completion of the sophomore year of college. It means that the student who initially lacks strong basic skills may begin more slowly and pick up speed and efficiency as his growing competencies in collegiate studies permit.

2. The learning environment is more supportive, less competitive
The colleges themselves are usually smaller than their four-year sister institutions. And classes are smaller too. Although students do compete for the higher grades, the focus is upon success - not failure. Community college faculty are not required to participate in research and publications as are their colleagues in the four-year college or university. Thus, they find their fulfilment in helping every motivated and hard-working student to achieve their educational goals.

3. Costs are more affordable
Tuition and fees at community colleges are usually substantially less than at neighbouring four-year colleges and universities. Many community colleges which were designed to serve local students who live at home and commute to campus have developed similar 'home stay' arrangements for international students. Local families house and feed international students while they pursue their studies at the college. Other colleges have a fully structured residential life for their students: on-campus housing, food service and a wide variety of student life activities. Whichever arrangement is in place at the college of choice, the total costs for tuition, fees, room and board are likely to be substantially less than a comparable four-year college or university.

Variety of Programming offers Multiple Opportunities

1. Transfer Studies
In the early years of their development, community/junior colleges were created primarily to provide the first two years of a four-year baccalaureate degree education for local students closer to home and at lesser costs. This programming mission of the community college has been recently strengthened by two trends: the rising entrance requirements and increasing costs of the four-year institutions, making it more difficult for the student to get in and stay in four-year programs; the rapid expansion of articulation agreements between two-year and four-year colleges, making it efficient for the student to take the first two years of 'university parallel' studies in the community college then transfer smoothly to the four-year college of choice. In some states, as high as 70% of college freshmen and sophomores are now enrolled in community colleges. An expanding number of international students are joining these native students, finding the community college to be an excellent place to begin their baccalaureate studies.

2. Basic Skills Development
Since the community colleges - 'the people's colleges' - were designed to help the local student succeed who might not have competed successfully for admission to some four-year institutions, all community colleges offer enhanced opportunities for strengthening the basic skills necessary for success in collegiate studies. These same opportunities more fully assure the success of the international students as well. If stronger foundations in mathematics are needed; if more successful strategies for learning are desired; if greater competence in reading, writing, listening, and speaking in English are necessary - all may be acquired in the community college. Moreover, many community colleges provide Intensive English or English-as-a-Second Language programs and the services of an Office of International Students to help their non-native students succeed.

3. Continuing Education
Following World War II, the expanding ranks of 'the people's colleges' found it necessary to provide educational opportunities to local students other than just the first two years of baccalaureate studies and the basic skills necessary to succeed therein. Local students - aged 18 to 80 - sought additional meaningful learning experiences. Community colleges responded by offering an ever-widening spectrum of 'continuing education'. Skills for leisure living, participation in the arts, training for meaningful patterns of recreation, opportunities to pursue vocational interests - all have become the curricula of continuing education. Thus, international students who select the community college as a place to begin preparing for a productive career now also find it a centre of learning activities designed for the enrichment of life as well.

4. Career/Technical Education and Workforce Training
Moreover, during recent decades U.S. community colleges have also increasingly become centres of career and technical education and of workforce training. The rapid changes of technology in countless fields of human endeavour have opened up around the world with numerous new, promising, well paid and satisfying careers available to those with two years of specialized technical training. In like fashion, people already in the workforce have found it necessary to engage in up-grade training of on-the-job skills and to enter a pattern of life-long learning to stay on top of their career fields. To these new needs and opportunities, community colleges have responded with vigor.

Many have become 'comprehensive' community colleges, offering a broad array of programs to meet local and state needs: transfer studies; basic skills development; personal/life enrichment opportunities; initial preparation for technical careers; up-grade training for career advancement; customized training for business and industry. Some have done this simply through adding more career and technical programs to their curricula; others have merged with vocational schools and technical colleges to afford this wider range of learning opportunities. However they have come about, they provide an equally rich pattern of opportunities for international students as for students of the neighborhood.

Two-year career and technical programs invite the international student to become well grounded in skills which open productive careers. From allied health professions such as Nursing, Dental Hygiene, and Medical Laboratory Technology to human services functions like Criminal Justice, Fire Science, and Social Services; from Agriculture and Veterinary Technology to Natural Resources Management and Environmental Technology; from Office Management, Paralegal, and Banking/Finance to Real Estate, Resort Management, and Travel/Tourism; from Broadcasting and Telecommunications to Multimedia and Information Technologies; from computer applications in business to computer applications in design and manufacturing; from Architectural Technology, Building Construction, and Welding to Mining Technology, Civil Engineering Technology, Aviation and Occupational Safety/Health - this vast array of learning opportunities at U.S. community colleges prepares international students as well as local students for rewarding careers in many fields critical to the world's economy.

Career/Technical Studies for the New Millennium
Interested in great value for your educational dollar and an excellent course of preparation for a promising technical career? Consider joining local students in a selected community college in the United States. Community colleges offer quality, customer-oriented, affordable higher education to get you where you want to go.

Author
Carlton Williams
Colorado Northwestern
Community College