SCLTC offers education alternative

Equipped with a strong education, Bayou Region students can take on the world.

That’s the message South Central Louisiana Technical College Lafourche Director of Student Affairs Anthony Tranchina gave at May’s Bayou Industrial Group monthly luncheon.

“Our goal is to train students – whether its six weeks of training or two years of training – to give you the training that you require so you could go out and be a productive citizen in our community,” said Tranchina.

The school’s main campus is in Thibodaux, and it has an instructional service center in Galliano.

He added the school is one of 38 technical schools in the state, and each one specializes in serving its own area’s specific needs.

“We’re not going to offer courses that aren’t needed in the Bayou Region,” said Tranchina. “Most of the time our students stay within 30 miles of where they learn. We train for what’s needed in our area. That’s why we have so many campuses throughout the state.”

Offering classes in business technology, medical training and industrial trades, SCLTC charges $27 per credit hour. Tranchina said full time students pay about $550 per semester.

“That is very affordable,” he said. “Especially for students who have to overcome an educational barrier, financial barriers, they didn’t graduate from high school so they have their GED or they don’t test well on standardized tests.”

The director said SCLTC accepts students regardless of what score they received on previous standardized tests, because the school holds remedial classes.

In fact, current high school students are eligible to take SCLTC classes without leaving their high school campuses.

“If they need an instructor [the Lafourche Parish School Board] places an instructor there,” said school board member and BIG President Stella Lasseigne. “And with the financial burden that we’re all facing, everybody’s just trying to help everybody else out. It’s a wonderful program, because what would we do if we didn’t have electricians or plumbers or mechanics?”

Tranchina said state budget cuts to higher education hit SCLTC hard in recent years, but the school board helped the technical college keep all of its programs by donating teachers as well as financial contributions.

“We’re very happy to be in partnership with the technical college,” said Lasseigne. “We are here to educate students. That’s our first priority. So any time we feel we can step to the plate and help them – as the school board, we certainly do that.”

The addition of high school teachers to SCLTC’s program have increased the amount of high students “dual-enrolled” from 94 to 384 in the past year.

That’s because before the partnership, high school students had to be bussed to SCLTC’s campus.

These “dual-enrolled” students earn both high school and college credit for taking a single class.