Agenda - 11-21-2000-6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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• N.C. community colleges offer an affordable alternative for post-secondary education and training _ • Counties have statutory responsibility far developing and maintaining facilities for a community college campus in the county :• State bond funding that might be available for construction of a building will have to be matched dollar-for-dollar by the county :• DTCC, the Orange County Schools, and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools have strong partnerships that have resulted in: • high school students taking college classes through DTCC • the educational institutions developing articulation plans between high school and DTCC curricula, and • local business and industry participating in job readiness skills awareness for high school students and teachers • Cooperative and collaborative programming between the public schools and DTCC would grow with college staff located in closer proximity to schools personnel A diverse group of residents met in focus groups during the summer and early fall. A member of the Community College Task Farce facilitated each group. A total of 148 residents filled out questionnaires and/or participated in conversations during the process High school students from both school systems, currently enrolled community college students, welfare recipients, business owners and employers, school system personnel and senior citizens shared their knowledge of current community college offerings in the County and their thoughts on the establishment of a permanent satellite campus of Durham Technical Community College. A spreadsheet detailing the responses and comments of the focus group participants is included in Appendix A of this report. A summary of their responses to a questionnaire completed by all participants is included below: • The 148 respondents included 92 females and S 1 males who ranged in age from 14 to alder than 65 (five individuals did not complete the question about gender) • Seventeen high school or community college students were included along with 10 retired individuals • Sixty-four were employed full-time, 20 were employed part-time and 22 did not respond to the question about employment status (fifteen indicated they were unemployed) • Seventy-six of the 148 respondents had previously taken classes ai~ered by community colleges headquartered in Durham, Alamance, Guilford, Cumberland, Lee or Iredell Counties • Ninety-six, or 64,9%, of the respondents indicated they were likely or very likely to take advantage of community college programming if it were to be offered in the County Another 33 said they might take advantage of a community college satellite campus. The respondents (148) indicated the following groups of people would be most likely to participate in programming at a communi#y college satellite campus in the County: • recent high school graduates (9S) • those seeking to upgrade skills for jabs (112) 6