Southern Indiana Business March-April 2020 | Page 40

SPOTLIGHT
N
imble. Flexible. Changing.
It’s the mission for Ivy
Tech Community College
Chancellor Travis Haire.
“It is our obligation to
adjust to the workforce demands and do it in
a very timely fashion,” said Haire, president
of the Sellersburg campus. “The governor
… expects it from us. We have to do it for
our students. I think we have to do it for our
community.”
Nationwide, higher education institutions
have been battling declining enrollment
trends while area businesses are struggling
to find workers who have the skills to handle
the available jobs.
In the fall, post-secondary enrollments
decreased 1.3%, which may not sound
like much, but that adds up to more than
231,000 fewer students from the previ-
ous fall, according to the National Student
Clearinghouse Research Center. That num-
ber marked a new record low in enrollment,
falling below 18 million students for the first
time in more than a decade, the NSCRC
reported.
Haire said Ivy Tech is not immune from
that trend. However, he’s hoping a strategic
focus on training for the local, available jobs
will not only help area business, but also his
enrollment figures.
Enter dental assisting and automotive
technology, two new fields that are in the
works to being added to the curriculum.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the need for dental assistants will
grow 11% through 2028, adding 38,700
jobs in that field. Though not expected to
grow, the automotive service technicians and
mechanics job field will hold pretty steady,
with around 770,100 jobs nationwide, the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stated.
But it’s not just about the jobs in other
states. Haire said it is about filling the void
here, in Southern Indiana.
“We heard it from enough folks out there
that said we really need this,” he said of the
new programs. “We’re in the community as
A poster in the hallway at Ivy Tech informs students of Indiana’s top paying jobs and the programs offered by the school to train them for the
positions.
Photo by Tyler Stewart
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March / April 2020