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Community & Technical College Fast Facts
The CTC system
- There are 34 community and technical colleges (CTCs) in Washington.
- CTCs serve nearly 500,000 students each year.
- The three mission areas of the CTCs are: workforce training, literacy education and transfer preparation to four-year institutions.
Workforce training
- More than 45% of all students at CTCs enroll to upgrade their job skills or prepare for a new job.
- 41% of jobs in the workforce require the education that two-year colleges provide.
- 81% of workforce program graduates get jobs, even during the recent economic downturn.
Literacy skills
- Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) pairs adult basic education or English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) with workforce training. Eleven colleges began I-BEST programs late in the 2005-06 year. An additional 14 colleges began programs during 2006-07, bring the total to 25 colleges preparing students for jobs in nursing and allied health care, commercial truck driving, industrial maintenance, automotive, computers and early childhood education.
- For the second year in a row, state-supported basic skills FTEs grew. There was a 20 percent increase in 2006. Still, demand for basic skills instruction continues to be unmet.
Student transfer
- 41% of bachelor’s degree graduates are community college transfer students.
- More than 1/3 of transfer students are the first in their family to go to college.
- Once two-year college transfer students earn a year’s worth of college credits, 87% of them move on to a four-year college within a year.
The future
- Enrollment at CTCs is expected to increase by 12,000 full-time students by the year 2012.
- In 2006-07, 79,649 students enrolled in eLearning classes, including 72,482 taking online courses. eLearning enrollment continued its double-diit growth rate. In 2006-07, some 14,400 FTEs were served via online instruction, an increase of 16 percent from 2005-06.
- Dual high school/college enrollments continued to grow at a significant pace. The number of Running Start enrollments grew by 5.1 percent in fall 2006. College in the High School and alternative high school enrollments also increased by 16 percent.
- Short-term training offerings are drawing increased enrollments as the economy is expanding.
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