Here’s an excerpt from the Asheville Citizen-Times article:
Even with the highest unemployment rate in years, area manufacturers and other employers are having trouble finding qualified workers to hire.
Only about one in 10 candidates applying for a job has the basic skills in math or the motivation needed to perform quality work, employers said at a Skills Gap Symposium on Monday at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College’s Enka campus.
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It’s bad enough that 90% of job applicants lack basic skills; that can be remedied, although not easily. However, when that same 90% lack “motivation”, then it becomes an intractable problem.
Thank goodness we have Tim Moffitt:
“I am very suspect of education in general.”
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/01/07/v-print/2904213/should-we-laugh-or-cry-at-pols.html
No surprise. when Asheville strives to promote itself as a counter-culture commune and “Beer City USA”, the immigrants will mostly be unmotivated drunken potheads.
As for Moffitt, insert the word “public” in front of education and I say Amen, brother!
“the immigrants will mostly be unmotivated drunken potheads.”
Indeed, the ‘immigrants’ tend to be over 50, white, and retired, with a healthy amount of disposable income. So you are spot on in your assumptions.
http://www.clrsearch.com/Asheville_Demographics/NC/Population-Growth-and-Population-Statistics
http://www.ashevillenc.com/area_info/facts_and_statistics
So how long has AB Tech been here? Is there some sort of disconnect between AB Tech and area employers as to what their ongoing needs are???? Seems to me to be a big problem there.
“So how long has AB Tech been here? Is there some sort of disconnect between AB Tech and area employers as to what their ongoing needs are???? Seems to me to be a big problem there.”
A recent trend in community colleges has been their use NOT as producers of employees for local business, but as cheaper alternatives to the first two years of college. When these students graduate, they transfer to 4-year colleges, most of which are not in Asheville/Buncombe, to complete their Junior & Senior years, and they graduate with degrees that are more conducive to moving away from Asheville/Buncombe.
The BIG question is why a college like UNC-A does not offer programs whose graduates ARE needed in Asheville/Buncombe, like Nursing. Instead, RNs and CNAs are being recruited from outside, which is difficult as they are being asked to move to an area with a much higher cost of living and less amenities, and while Mission pay is competetive, it is NOT superior to bigger cities in NC/SC/TN. Those who wish to earn BSN or graduate degrees have to attend satellite campuses of WCU, ASU and Montreat, while UNC-A remains unutilized except to produce more Liberal Art “potters and poets”, something this area already has more of than it has dollars to support.
“UNC-A does not offer programs whose graduates ARE needed in Asheville/Buncombe, like Nursing”
UNCA is an arts school, not a nursing school. That might be one reason.