Strickland: State labor market out of flux

The new leader of Fletcher Technical Community College warned industry leaders about an issue with Louisiana’s labor market that could threaten the state economy.

While speaking at a South Central Industrial Association luncheon last week, newly-hired Fletcher Chancellor Dr. Kristine Strickland spoke about the value of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System. Strickland highlighted the disconnect between the state’s workforce education levels and the job market’s requirements.

Strickland provided data from the Louisiana

Workforce Commission examining the discrepancy between labor training and jobs available in Louisiana. According to the data, while 8 percent of2004 Louisiana’s high school class entered two-year colleges or similar programs, 55 percent of jobs in Louisiana required that education level in 2014. Strickland said the figures point to the need to increase enrollment in the LCTCS.

“We need to be aligned very closely with the needs of business and industry and the workforce in terms of both continued training as well as educating the new workforce that will come in,” Strickland said.

Those same LWC numbers reveal oversupply in training on each side of the two-year window in which Fletcher and other technical schools sit.

Four-year colleges received 35 percent of that 2004 class while 21 percent of the state’s 2014 job market required that level of education. On the other side, 20 percent of students directly entered the job market after graduation, with 24 percent of jobs requiring that training.

A major drag on the state’s labor market discrepancy is the number of students who do not even finish high school. That same LWC data said 37 percent of 2004 students either dropped out or left the state before graduating high school. Additional LWC data said that about 26 percent of the 2.3 million total eligible workers in Louisiana have no high school diploma or post-secondary credential, while only 2 percent of the state’s annual job openings are available to that group.

The lack of graduates from technical schools has been felt on the industry side.

Paul Danos, executive vice president of Danos, said that even with the oil industry’s current slowdown, his company is still on the lookout for qualified workers.

“The paradigm has changed, although there’s still a need for the technical, skilled employees that we’re looking for, even in the midst of this downturn. But I would say absolutely, over the last few years, we have a shortage of good, qualified technical workers,” Danos said.

Strickland said that to increase enrollment in two-year programs, leadership in the LCTCS must attract more students from both sides of the workforce. According to Strickland, Fletcher is reaching out to both high school students and adults to present alternative career paths for them.

Nicol Blanchard, college and career transition coordinator for the LCTCS, said that the state’s Jump Start Graduation Pathways is one way in which technical schools can reach prospective students and get involved in the two-year program early.

High school sophomores choose their pathways, with some leading toward four-year colleges and others leading to technical schools or jobs. The state has 47 different pathways, although not every school offers all of them due to resource availability. Students can change their pathways throughout high school if they please.

According to Blanchard, students who choose a technical pathway cannot enter a four-year institution straight out of high school; they must instead attend community college first. However, those students are required to have some kind of industry-based certification before they graduate, so they would have a head start at two-year institutions.

Blanchard said Fletcher participates in multiple outreach events to show college students what industry is like. The school had representatives at the SCIA Work It! Louisiana Annual Oil and Gas Career Exploration event last Thursday. According to Blanchard, 384 students from 17 area high schools attended.

Students from 17 local high schools participate in the SCIA Work It! Louisiana Annual Oil and Gas Career Exploration event.

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