George Rebane

[This article, sans photo, was submitted to The Union as my 20jun09 Other Voices column.  It was printed as shown here.]

Admittedly our hilltop Sierra College campus brings a number of benefits to Nevada County.  Among these are –

– Cash importer and local employer of teachers and staff;
– Provider of remedial education for our post-high school young;
– Vocational workforce (re)training;
– Fulfillment courses for all ages thereby increasing local quality of life;
– A convenient and accessible path to a four-year college;
– General contributor to the national pool of educated people.

These benefits are laudable and welcomed by the community.  But as often hailed, is the college also a source of a skilled workforce that attracts new businesses to the county?  Attracting new companies is a (the?) major driver of local economic development, and it is not clear exactly how much the college is doing in this arena.  In preparing for this piece I interviewed Messrs Aaron Klein, Sierra College Trustee, and Gil Matthew, CEO of our Economic Resource Council.  Both stated that there is no hard data on what kinds and how many skilled workers are produced by the college for local businesses.

This does not mean that our Sierra College campus contributes nothing to economic development.  Recognizing its role, Aaron Klein stated that “Sierra College is a foundational pillar of business development, but not its primary driver.”  Gil Matthew, himself a former SC student and founder of Benchmark Thermal, agrees.  Today Mr. Matthew is charged by the county’s political jurisdictions to develop and execute programs to attract new businesses.  He states unequivocally that Sierra College is part of a compelling trifecta – along with Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital and the county’s air park – that makes our community a desirable place in which to locate and operate a business.

But when we consider the effectiveness of community colleges, we ultimately come to the high hard factors of workforce development that go beyond our county, factors which are also more critical than ever during these difficult times.  The American workforce of about 140 million is becoming ever more obsolete as accelerating technology moves first world jobs away from manufacturing and toward a knowledge economy.  The reasons for this are many and a subject of heated debate.  In the final analysis it comes down to our educational system that no longer produces workers skilled in wealth generation – as opposed to wealth management, distribution, and consumption.  Primarily it is jobs in technology based and supported knowledge industries that produce the wealth which then cascades over the remainder of our economy to enable the jobs and provide the quality of life we have come to expect.

As William McGurn (16jun09 Wall Street Journal) and others observe, it is clear that the overwhelming number of lost manufacturing jobs will not come back – ever.  Think tanks like Michigan Future have studied this problem extensively, and conclude that manufacturing will no longer support our 21st century middle class.  But where will these re/trained workers come from who can competitively sell their labor in knowledge industries like insurance, professional services, and healthcare?  Gil Matthew offers a hopeful view –

As technology continues to drive a faster and faster pace of change, the community college system has difficultly keeping up.  The transition time between when the community makes its needs known and curriculum can be instituted is perhaps longer than we could like, but in the case of Sierra College they have been very responsive given the hurdles they must overcome.

But peruse the curriculum of courses offered by our campus, and you quickly see that there are relatively few courses that will put the student on the path to a wealth creating career.  Admittedly, most students attending the college may not be able to benefit from such courses even if offered.  Nevertheless, the majority of courses seem to be designed to prepare students for careers that anticipate a free and copious flow of wealth from some other place.  These are careers in the lower level service industries, and those funded by the state and various non-profit institutions.

I believe that Sierra College should make every effort to redirect itself toward a curriculum that helps prepare its students for wealth creating careers.  Their new program in solar technology may well be one such positive direction, but only so long as government mandates, followed by government funds, continue.  Were I king, the college would offer a generous curriculum in the math, science, and technology gateway courses to private sector careers that do not depend on the constant largesse of political patronage.

George Rebane is a retired systems scientist and entrepreneur in Nevada County who regularly expands these and other themes on Rebane’s Ruminations (www.georgerebane.com).