Education must lead clearly to opportunity

At a time when many are questioning whether higher education is worth the investment, new statewide survey results indicate that public confidence in the Wisconsin Technical College System is on the rise with two-thirds of Wisconsin residents expressing a favorable view — the highest level measured in recent years.

With 76% of survey respondents agreeing that not all students benefit from a four-year college path, technical college leaders say the findings point to a broader shift in how families think about college: education must lead clearly to opportunity.

“They see us as a trusted system at a time when higher education in the country has been questioned more and more about the cost and about whether or not it pays off in the end,” said Dr. Kristen Raney, president of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC).

“Wisconsin sees this system as a system that delivers and that stands out… We’re accessible, we’re affordable and when students come here, the time and energy they put into going to college at NWTC is going to pay off, and we all benefit from that. That, to me, is pretty remarkable given the world that we’re in at this time.”

Not only do 66% of Wisconsin residents hold a favorable opinion of technical colleges, but 76% say the state benefits from the education technical colleges provide.

“It is good for the state to have employers know that they have talent coming to them that they need,” Raney said. “It is good for the state when residents have good jobs and can afford to put down economic roots and live in a community where money goes back into our communities — that’s economic vibrancy. It is good for our residents to have local technical colleges and to have access to go to college in their backyard.”

And with 92% of NWTC graduates employed within six months of graduation and 81% staying right here in Wisconsin, the odds are high that even a resident who may not personally know an NWTC graduate will benefit at some point from the education NWTC provides.

“Even if someone doesn’t have their own son or daughter coming here, there’s a hospital that is filled with our graduates. If they get their teeth cleaned, they’re probably going to have an NWTC graduate there. If they get their car fixed or if there’s a utility issue, there are likely going to be NWTC graduates helping them get their work done at their home or business,” Raney said.

What contributes to the high employment rate among NWTC graduates? Raney said it’s the involvement of employers in the curriculum design process to ensure that what’s being taught is exactly what employers are looking for.

“I would say NWTC is doing what the Wisconsin Technical College System was designed to do…” Raney said. “The programs that we offer at NWTC lead to jobs in Northeast Wisconsin.

For every program, we have employers, industry experts and people who hire our graduates on advisory committees. They look at our curriculum, they know who the faculty are, they know what our labs and our classrooms and our equipment are and they give us their insights… They tell us what’s happening in their industries like manufacturing or healthcare and what’s changing that we need to know about so we can update our program.”

But employment isn’t the only way students find success and opportunity after NWTC.
Thanks to strong transfer programs with more than a dozen universities, students seeking a four-year degree can start their degree at NWTC and know their credits will transfer.

Among NWTC students who complete an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree, 78% successfully transfer to a four-year institution and statewide, 64% of residents see technical colleges as a strong transfer option.

“A lot of times students come to us and they know they want a four-year degree, but they still want to start at what feels smaller and safer, maybe, before they go,” Raney said. “The other thing that happens, though, is that students come here often not sure that they belong in college and they worry about whether or not they’re going to be successful. What happens is we see students grow and develop and when they’re here, they see there are opportunities for them to continue on… We approach it the same way as we do anything else, which is, ‘Alright, if that’s what you want to do then we’re going to make sure that we have good partnerships with our universities so that we can help our students finish here and then transfer.’ That gives them an opportunity to have smaller class sizes and affordable tuition. They get to stay oftentimes closer to home and maybe continue to work and do other things, but also get the first couple of years done out of their bachelor’s degree.”

With the average age of students at NWTC being 27, many students come into NWTC already working and juggling financial challenges but still place their trust in NWTC to help them create a better opportunity for themselves — something Raney said she and the college do not take lightly.

“When I talk to students who come here, it’s sort of a leap of faith that they make when they say, ‘I’m going to come to NWTC and I’m going to invest in my future. I’m going to pay tuition and I’m going to maybe work part-time or more than that. I’m going to add this additional work into my life,’” Raney said. “And they do that because they see that at the end of that, when they’re successful, they’re going to have opportunities and a better future that they wouldn’t have had if they didn’t come to NWTC. They’re placing in us that trust… And seeing how trusted we are, I feel a sense of responsibility to continue to earn the trust of students and to earn the trust of residents. It’s not a small thing, and we want to continue to deliver.”

And to continue delivering, Raney said NWTC plans to keep doing what it’s been doing — providing education that leads to clear opportunity.

“I think the future is really bright,” Raney said. “Even as public perception may change about higher education or four-year universities, I think we have to continue to be a place where everyone is welcome, where we have support to help students be successful, where we are staying in touch with our graduates so we know what happens to them when they’re done… We’ll continue to do what we’ve done, which is listen to employers and pay attention to the changing economic and employment needs and continue to adjust so that we’re delivering for employers, but we’re also delivering for students…We design programs that are going to lead to the skills and knowledge for graduates that employers need, but then we do everything we can to design the student experience so they have the academic help, the advising and the tutoring help they need to be successful. We track their progress. We make sure that they’re hitting key milestones. We’ve defined our success as, ‘We’re successful when they’re successful.’”