Meador: College plan to affect coming generations

The Louisiana Community and Technical College System’s new six-year plan is aimed at providing students with useful skills that will prepare them for jobs in ever-changing industries, South Central Louisiana Technical College Regional Director Earl Meador said Friday.
The Louisiana Community and Technical College System Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the system’s 2020 Plan Wednesday.
Over the last eight or nine months, System President Monty Sullivan has developed a strategic plan for the system. A shortage of 86,000 workers exists right now in the state, Meador said. Technical colleges are being called upon to train workers to fill that shortage, Meador said. Meador also serves as chancellor of Fletcher Technical Community College.
“We looked in the mirror and realized that we better figure out how we’re going to do this,” Meador said. “And what is it going to take to meet those goals?”
Meador called the task ahead of technical college leaders mind-boggling, he said. Board member Vinnie St. Blanc, of Franklin, called the plan a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a difference for generations to come in Louisiana, Meador said.
“He made a point that as leaders it’s not very often in a lifetime you can do something that’s going to make a dramatic difference for generations to come,” Meador said. “But these goals we’re setting forward and what we do in Louisiana really does dictate our generations.”
People and businesses are now coming back to the state, but if colleges do not meet the needs of businesses, they are not going to stay, Meador said.
The plan has six goals. The first one is to double the number of graduates annually to 40,000 statewide. Another goal is to double the annual earnings of graduates to $1.5 billion. If that second goal is met, the taxes that graduates will pay the first year will provide as much as the state currently allocates to community and technical college systems, Meador said.
Meador and other technical and community college leaders are looking to quadruple student transfers to four-year universities, he said. Meador plans to talk to Nicholls State President Bruce Murphy to figure out a way to transfer more students from South Central Louisiana Technical College to Nicholls State University, he said.
South Central Louisiana Technical College has eight campuses going as far south as Galliano and also including Reserve and Franklin, Meador said.
The plan calls for doubling annual enrollment and quadrupling partnerships with business and industry, Meador said. “We have the most incredible economic development going on in our state right now,” Meador said. “And right here in St. Mary, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes is the epicenter of everything that’s going on.”
College leaders have to be versatile in training because businesses change quickly, Meador said. Young Memorial has tried offering free training a couple times but no one came, he said. “So we’ve had to go back and rethink the way we do things,” Meador said.
Additionally, the board is looking to double the assets of the foundations supporting the system to $50 million and quadruple partnerships with business and industry.
Colleges need to work with community leaders, civic organizations, business associations and faith-based groups to get students on a career path, Meador said. A high school equivalency certificate is merely paper and does not get people a job by itself, he said.
“A credential is not just a piece of paper,” Meador said. “When we call it a credential, the qualifying factor for certificate is something that makes them more job-worthy.”
The credentials need to be stackable, which means they allow students to go back and get more training on top of what they already have, Meador said. Students’ educational journey is more important than just earning a degree, he said.
Each community is unique and should be treated as such when educating students, he said. “We need different services here in Morgan City than we need over in Franklin,” Meador said.
South Central Louisiana Technical College is in a partnership with Fletcher Technical Community College to where South Central Louisiana Technical College’s Young Memorial Campus in Morgan City now hosts college level algebra courses for Fletcher Technical Community College, Meador said.
College officials are looking to expand that partnership and create new partnerships, he said. “It’s a matter of what does the community need, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Meador said. “What they need today may be different tomorrow because that’s the nature of the world we live in. You’ve got to be ready to change.”