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BTC bustles as it educates laid-off workers

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

A sign in the Blackhawk Technical College parking lot advertises the overflow parking lot a half mile away and the shuttle bus service between the lot and the school.

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

The old Caravilla parking lot now serves as overflow parking for Blackhawk Technical College, with a shuttle bus providing the half mile trip to the college.

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Photo by Bill Olmsted

Ben Brikowski (rear) helps Dominic Ashford complete a class assignment and learn some new computer skills in the BTC teaching and Learning Center.

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ROCK TOWNSHIP — Students at the Blackhawk Technical College campus south of Janesville pull small, wheeled suitcases as if they are about to board an airline flight.

The book-laden totes have long been common sight here, but there’s been a change recently in the people doing the pulling: They’re as likely to be gray-bearded dads as 20-something youngsters.

These are people who lost their jobs as the economy soured over the past two years. There are plenty of moms, too, some with their own kids in college.

One of those moms is Chris Pope of Janesville. Laid off in 2008 after 14 years at Lear, Pope is close to getting her associate degree in business management.

Taking care of her family, attending school and finding quiet time for homework is difficult, not to mention the adjustment to 21st century schooling, Pope said.

“This is all different from when I was in high school,” she said.

The student body is not only older and having difficulty adjusting, but it’s much bigger. BTC has hired more instructors and increased class sizes. It’s requiring everyone to take a “student success” course to learn how to take notes, how to prepare for a test and how to think differently than they did on the job.

For the staff of BTC, the adjustment is a numbers game.

The digital divide

Full-time-equivalent enrollment jumped from 1,905 in the 2007-08 school year to 2,592 as of Feb. 15. That’s a record for as far back as records go—to 1969.

BTC projects the FTE enrollment to top 3,000 by May.

You first notice BTC’s transformation in the parking lot, which can fill to capacity some days. Officials have set up a shuttle bus from the parking lot of Rock Valley Community Programs on nearby West Sunny Lane Road.

Administrators and staff are dealing with limited classroom space and students who have never had to use a computer—the essential tool of a modern student.

“They didn’t know how to turn the computer on,” tutor Ben Brikowski said of some of the students who have come to him for help in BTC’s Teaching and Learning Center.

The learning center is a small room that was designed and is still used to help instructors enhance their computer skills.

Now, the learning center is more often used by students who need to learn how to send an e-mail to an instructor, to write a paper using word-processing software or save information to a flash drive.

Jenny Rouzan began tutoring computer skills last year. Demand for the service got so high last fall that Brikowski was hired as well.

Most students coming in for help are older, and most cross the digital divide with a little help, Rouzan said.

But a few have come to tears of frustration.

“A lot of it is just holding their hand or maybe explaining it a little bit more,” Rouzan said.

“They’re always very, very appreciative of what we’re doing,” Brikowski said.

Pope was one who sought help at the learning center.

“It overwhelmed me. There was so much I didn’t know,” Pope said.

Now, “it’s so much better. I do everything on the computer,” Pope said.

“Teachers, everybody, are more than willing to help,” she said. ‘I’ve never had trouble if I had a problem.”

Other students interviewed also complimented their instructors.

‘Scared but serious’

Kip Hirschfield of Janesville, who plans to graduate in electrical power distribution this spring, was laid off by General Motors in 2008. He waited a year to get into his program.

A 1993 Craig High School grad, Hirschfield said the worst part of going back to school was not knowing what was expected of him.

“I never figured I’d have to take physics once I left (high school), agreed Charlie Coulter of Janesville, another ex-GM’er also in electrical power distribution.

But Hirschfield said he’s also noticed he and Coulter got a leg up on “kids” just out of high school.

“Us older guys, we’re more goal-oriented, and it’s easier to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Vice President of Learning Sharon Kennedy agrees the older students are different.

“They’re wonderful role models, frankly, for the traditional students because they’re very serious,” Kennedy said. “Scared but very serious.”

Kennedy said few of the dislocated workers drop out.

BTC is offering more evening and weekend courses to accommodate the influx. And class sizes are bigger. The general-education courses are the most crowded but can’t exceed 30 because of fire code, Kennedy said.

Bigger classes

All students are required to take written communications, and it’s a tough course for most of them, said longtime instructor John Norland.

Norland said he spends most of his classes going from student to student, giving individual help. With 30 students, he is spread too thin.

“When they went to 30, a lot of people just got discouraged and quit because I couldn’t get to them,” Norland said.

Rick Dehring has taught communications and psychology for 27 years. He said he can’t recall having 30 students in a class before.

But Dehring prefers large classes, because his method is to break students into groups to work on problems.

“I welcome the increase, to a point, and we’re at that point right now,” Dehring said.

The down side is the time consumed in out-of-class work such as answering students’ e-mails and recording grades, Dehring said.

Pope, meanwhile, is one of many students wondering about what happens after she graduates May 15.

With unemployment compensation running out, “I need to find a full-time job,” she said.

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Blackhawk Technical College expects enrollment to start dropping in August for one reason: The money’s running out.

Much of the federal retraining money flows through the Southwest Wisconsin Development Board, whose boss is Bob Borremans, a former Blackhawk Tech vice president.

Borremans’ agency helps pay for students to take classes at BTC and elsewhere. It also contracts with BTC to set up special courses exclusively for displaced workers, and that has raised questions.

Some have seen people get into the special, contracted courses, which are only for laid-off workers, while regular students must wait to get into BTC’s regular programs, such as nursing, Borremans said.

Displaced workers have never leap-frogged over those waiting for BTC’s regular courses, said Borremans and Sharon Kennedy, BTC’s vice president of learning.

The cost of the contracted courses bothers Borremans, who would like to find money to put more laid-off workers through school.

“We’re paying way more than we should for that, in my opinion,” Borremans said.

Borremans said 16 students got licensed practical nurse training in a contract with BTC that cost $180,000, for example.

That’s 19 credits, which works out to $592 a credit. Regular BTC tuition is just over $100 a credit.

BTC has always charged what it considered the entire cost, including overhead, for its contracted courses, said BTC President Eric Larson. A company that wants to train workers in a certain skill, for example, pays full cost.

Students who pay tuition are subsidized, Larson said. Local property taxes and grants from the federal government and other sources pay much of those students’ costs.

For nonprofits and for Borremans’ agency, the cost is lower than for private businesses because BTC doesn’t charge for administration, Larson said.

Borremans said he understands this reasoning, but “I just would have hoped they could have done a little bit more.”

Borremans would like to see BTC set up more short-term programs to get workers back to work as fast as possible.

Borremans gives BTC better than a passing grade in its response to the economic emergency, however.

“They’ve really responded well in overall terms,” he said. “The quality’s still there. They run good programs.”

Borremans said his funding comes from four sources:

-- A regular allocation through the national Workforce Investment Act.

-- Special-response funding through the Workforce Investment Act.

-- The federal stimulus program, or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

-- The National Emergency Grant, which targets only the auto industry.

Borremans said he pulled back on funding for students because most of those sources were on the verge of drying up.

One of those students was Mike Zahn of Janesville, who is laid off from Stoughton Trailers.

Zahn was told he could get up to $8,000 for a two-year degree, but Borremans said some students were cut back to $1,250.

That forced Zahn to get a one-year certificate in computer repair at BTC rather than the associate degree he wanted.

“We’re kind of forcing them into making choices,” Borremans said.

It was Zahn’s second compromise on the road to recovery. He had wanted to take small-engine repair at Madison Area Technical College but was told there was no room.

Now, Zahn worries that his certificate may not be competitive enough to get him a job.

Borremans said he hopes to be able to fund more associate degrees now because the National Emergency Grant was recently refunded.

Borremans said the need remains great. His agency has helped 3,900 people get training since July 1, but there are 15,000 unemployed people in the six counties he serves.