By TROY CASE
Recently unemployed workers are returning to college in droves. With the help of TRIO and the Trade Adjustment Assistance programs, FVCC is providing the tools to retrain these unemployed.
TRIO is a federal outreach program designed to motivate and assist students facing financial challenges that otherwise might prevent them from going to school. The TRIO program works closely with non-traditional students helping them integrate into college life.
“We are teaching these folks how to be college students and providing a large support group for the emotional transition,” said Lynn Farris, FVCC TRIO director.
The Trade Adjustment Assistance program is a federal program passed in 2007 and revamped in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Assistance program provides a variety of benefits and services to workers who have lost their jobs due to international trade. The program’s aim is to create and retain jobs by providing grants to communities that have job losses. Benefits include job retraining, educational and income support and relocation allowances. Eligible recipients of federal aid receive two years paid educational expenses and unemployment benefits.
Unemployment doubled in the Flathead Valley from 6.1 percent in 2008 to 13.7 percent in January of 2010. The closures of Plum Creek pulp mills and the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company, along with the sale and restructuring of Semitool (now Applied Materials) all contributed to high unemployment in the valley. Approximately 615 Flathead workers were eligible for federal aid through the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program. Many of these laid-off workers in the Flathead have sought retraining at FVCC.
With hundreds of additional new students, many without any recent educational experience, FVCC officials decided to create a way to help these non-traditional students transition from the blue-collar work force to college life. Learning Communities have been established on campus for students who are struggling with the transition. These students can spend a semester with their peers brushing up on rusty academic skills. Transition to College and Adult Basic education classes are offered such as reading, writing, math and computer applications.
“The focus of the Learning Communities is to help new students overcome their lack of competence,” said Matthew Springer, FVCC Coordinator for Resource Development and Grants. “For FVCC the hurdle is mathematics with new enrollments.”
Larry Netzel is a sophomore and is receiving financial aid through the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. He has not been to school since 1964. Netzel worked at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company for more than 25 years before he was laid off in 2009. Job Services of Kalispell held several meetings at the plant to discuss assistance opportunities with the workers.. After “a lot of paper work” Netzel decided to go back to school for a welding and inspection certificate.
“The transition was hard,” he said “but they helped me get this far. When you’re used to working everyday it’s hard to get your brain into books.”
Netzel started in the summer of 2009 in a learning community of his peers taking intensive reading, writing and basic math classes to prepare him for college classes.
“Smaller classes made it easier to get help and talk to the teacher,” Netzel said. “They really help you get through the program.”
About 8 percent of FVCC students are supported by the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which has an 88 percent retention rate at the college. Overall success of the program is still unknown with the first Trade Assistance students due to graduate this year, but the small success are noticed on campus everyday.
“I feel the program is very successful,” Farris said. “The TAA students treat education like a job where they invest 40 plus hours a week, and they are focused because this is a deliberate choice.”
Troy Case is a student in Journalism 101C, News Writing and Reporting.
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