Yesterday President Obama signed a spending bill that includes nearly a million dollars for Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville. The money is meant to help former GM workers and others in the city who are unemployed.
WUWM’s Susan Bence visted the community college, where the faculty’s been trying for months to help revive Janesville’s workforce.
Blackhawk Technical College may not seem strategically positioned, plunked among farmfields between Janesville and Beloit, but people are finding their way here just fine. The school’s enrollment has increased by more than 25 percent in the last year.
It’s Linda Brown’s job to process those incoming students, many still mourning the loss of a benefit-rich factory job.
“I had a new student, a dislocated worker, she was just devastated. She signed up for this Introduction to Microsoft Office and she said, I don’t know how to do any of this and she made the assumption that introduction meant that they would show her how to turn the computer on,” Brown says.
Brown says that student wasn’t unique. It didn’t take long to find out many of Blackhawk’s new students had never touched a keyboard.
“There just weren’t enough resources to start up another section of computer for the beginners, so we set up a voluntary coverage with staff, do you have an hour to help students, so on top of everything else, we’ve got all of our staff volunteering to go down and help these students one-on-one,” Brown says.
Many classes are splitting at the seams.
Ruth Wheaton-Cox coordinates the school’s nursing program. She says people to gravitate to health care field, because it seems more recession-proof.
“I’ve seen a tremendous difference in the class and I think it has to do with the difference of factory culture, belonging to a strong union, that has a lot of detail spelled out in roles and function,” Wheaton-Cox says.
Even with years of teaching experience, Wheaton-Cox says this assignment is challenging
“We talk about what the academic culture is like and what the culture of health care will be like and how they’re really having to make this transition. And I’m hoping making them a little bit aware of what they’re going through, I hope we’re addressing their needs,” Wheaton-Cox says.
Wheaton-Cox says many of her colleagues have added classes to their full time load or allowed more students to join existing classes.
“We don’t have additional infrastructure to handle some of this, so we’re just having to make something out of nothing,” Wheaton-Cox says.
David Gile says he find the influx of dislocated workers invigorating. The economics & ethics teacher says up until now most of his students came right out of high school.
“Now we’re seeing the older students from the GM dislocation and they are heart-attack serious about school. This is their chance and they’re going to take full advantage of their chance and get it while the getting’ good, so to speak,” Gile says.
Gile says that attitude seems to be rubbing off. There’s not an empty chair in his classroom.
“I think the younger people see that just snagging a job is not going to be as easy when they see people that perhaps whose jobs they might have wanted are now out looking for a job. Certainly the competition is going to go up if you don’t have that educational edge that others have you’re going to be left behind these days,” Gile says.
Across campus Larry Bower shows me his brand-new welding lab.
“We have 25 student work stations here set up to have 2 simulatneous projects going on,” Bower says.
Bower’s program has almost tripled and he’ll be adding a Saturday section.
“We’re going to have summer school for the first time in years. It’s growing, growing, growing,” Bower says.
Bower’s says good welders always land on their feet and his students and landing jobs.
“A large variety - Kuhn Manufacturing in Brodhead, Monroe Truck in Monroe,” Bower says.
Even so, Blackhawk’s president Eric Larson is concerned there just aren’t enough jobs out there.
“The question truly is will there be a job in 12 months, 18 months, two years for them to go to locally. I believe there will be employment but will it be local enough for them that they don’t have to uproot their family and move because if you have to uproot your family and move, will you be able to sell your house? Now hopefully some of the federal assistance money that’s coming through can help in creating some of those jobs that are necessary for individuals to get back to work,” Larson says.
In the last two weeks Blackhawk has seen more than 200 people who don’t even have high school diplomas.
And it’s not over yet.
The school expects another flood in the coming months, including the last workers out of GM’s factory in December.
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