Sheldon, Iowa — The number of students who take a community college class while still in high school in Iowa continues to go up according to figures from the Department of Education.
And President of Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon — Dr. Alethea Stubbe — says they are also seeing that trend.
(as said) “We have been experiencing an increase over the last while. We had a blip of course last fall where students weren’t really sure what was happening. And so we hold our own but this spring we’re up over three percent in credits and two and a half percent in headcount on our concurrent enrollment credits. So we have we’re serving 910 high school students from the area right now.”
And while that is a good number, it appears to be a continuing trend, as she says it’s much higher than it was several years ago.
(as said) “Back in 2017. We were mid 700s. So we’ve seen quite an uptick.”
We asked Dr. Stubbe if more high school students were taking career and technical education classes or classes in the arts and sciences.
(as said) “It really is a true mix. NCC is known for its high-quality career technical education and at the secondary level we have, you know afternoon automotive classes for high school students. We have work-based career exploration opportunities set up in high schools. But we also have that associate of arts transfer class. That’s very popular to get a jump start on a degree while they’re still in high school.”
She tells us about a very popular nursing program that high school students can take.
(as said) “Of course, we also have the certified nursing assistant classes, which we can’t seem to ever offer enough of. We’ve had… and these figures are from ’19-’20… We have 268 CNA participants. We’ve offered it in every high school. That was a 16 and a half percent enrollment increase from just two years before so we have seen strong growth.”
Stubbe says NCC is known for high-quality education.
(as said) “We’ve been named number one in the nation for upward middle-class mobility recognizing these great-paying careers that grads can earn and so I think people are realizing that college and career readiness is really important in today’s economy that provides individuals and families with a livable wage and prepares them to follow this path for advancement. So I think the statewide initiative Future Ready Iowa heightened interest. I think we’re working even more closely with business and industry and our regional planning partners to attract high school students to these needed career areas so that our area has enough skilled technicians and high school students are just realizing that they can get great jobs.”
For more information about concurrent enrollment in high school and community college, you can talk to your high school guidance counselor or call NCC.
