Staggering Jump of 76.3 % in Altamaha Technical College’s Spring Enrollment
Jesup – The halls of Altamaha Technical College are 76.3% fuller this Spring Quarter compared to Spring Quarter 2009. President Lorette Hoover notes this jump continues to be fueled in large part by the effects of the recession, although the attraction of a technical college education is expected to remain strong even when the economy recovers.
The Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), which is comprised of the 28 Georgia Technical Colleges, is up 19% overall compared to this same time last year. Altamaha Technical College’s percent change compared to one year ago is 76.3 percent (due partly to a pure increase in students as well as to gaining three additional campuses in July 2009).
Of all 28 technical colleges statewide, Altamaha Technical College leads in terms of percent increase in this one-year period. “Not only are we happy to serve more students and businesses in more communities, we are proud of our college staff for embracing such a large influx in stride while still offering stellar service to those students, businesses and communities,” Hoover states. The college with the second highest percentage increase is Valdosta Technical College with an increase of 40.2 percent.
Initial numbers posted by the technical colleges indicate that the current quarter’s enrollment of 107,269 students is 17,381 more than in Spring Quarter of 2009, when 89,888 students attended classes on the TCSG campuses. It also marks the third consecutive quarter of six-digit enrollment in the Technical College System of Georgia, which is a first for the system. The colleges are on pace for close to a 20% overall enrollment increase in the current fiscal year ending on June 30. The system projects that the annual enrollment in Fiscal Year 2010 will be in excess of 185,000 students, or about 30,000 more students than in the previous year.
Affordable tuition and world-class training that leads to an in-demand job in two years or less is increasingly attractive to both the younger, more traditional college students as well as older men and women seeking to learn new skills because they’re either under-employed or out of work entirely. In fact, this quarter’s largest percentage increase was in the 40-and-over age group, which rose by a third from 14,263 students in the spring of 2009 to the current 19,015 students. The 25-and-under age group, which accounts for about half of all TCSG students, grew by 11 percent.
Of the 1,567 students now enrolled in Altamaha Technical College, 678 students were not enrolled this time last year. The current enrollment broken down by age group is as follows:
Under 21 372 students 23.7%
Age 21-25 334 students 21.3%
Age 26-30 214 students 13.7%
Age 31-35 203 students 13%
Age 36-40 168 students 10.7%
Over 40 276 students 17.6%
TCSG tuition is currently $40 per credit hour but will be raised to $45 beginning with the Summer 2010 Quarter. Since the majority of TCSG students use either the Georgia HOPE Grant or the Federal Pell Grant (or both, depending on their need), most should see no additional out-of-pocket cost since the tuition increase will be covered by the grants. Almost 90% of TCSG students utilize grants to help pay for their education. As a result, very few TCSG graduates leave college and enter the job market saddled with a heavy student loan debt.
Georgia’s 28 technical colleges offer 600 programs that lead to in-demand jobs and careers. Almost 40% of all TCSG students are enrolled in healthcare programs, and thousands more are readying themselves for careers in areas ranging from aerospace, energy and the environment, and life sciences to more traditional trades like electronics, automotive technology and cosmetology.
Altamaha Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, is an academic institution of higher education that supports the economic empowerment of people, communities, and businesses along the Altamaha River and southern coast through providing technical education programs at the associate degree, diploma, and certificate levels, a variety of workforce development services and adult education programs. For more information about the programs and services provided by Altamaha Technical College, call 800-645-8284 or visit the website at http://www.altamahatech.edu/.
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