TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — As he made the base for an award with a machine that he learned about in class, Greg Aldridge learned about the different aspects of machinery. He’s in the machine tool technology program at Pima Community College.
“Even if you have no experience you can succeed here and you can get career skills,” Aldridge said about the program.
It’s his third year in the program and he transferred from the University of Arizona. While at the university, he felt like he wasn’t getting much out of his program.
“I felt that I wasn’t getting the career potential that I needed from the degree I was pursuing,” he said.
One of the aspects he took into consideration before transferring to PCC was how much the U of A costs.
“For the fraction of the cost of what the university is, I’m able to have many career opportunities,” he said about PCC’s program.
Student debt is one of the factors that PCC’s chancellor Jeffrey Nasse said is driving more students to choose community colleges instead of traditional four year universities.
“These are great programs that go right into a meaningful career at a quarter of the price,” Nasse said.
This is the tenth straight semester where Pima Community College said enrollment is up. From last fall to this fall, they said students who were enrolled by the first day of school went up by more than 8%. They said some of the most popular programs students are signing up for are machinery and robotics.
Similarly, Cochise College said they are expecting to see more students this year.
In comparison, the University of Arizona said they expect to see a slight drop in enrollment this year, but said they saw a record amount of students last year.
The growth, Nasse said, is something he’s been working on by partnering with local high schools and employers.
“Really talking with employers, how should we be teaching these things, what should we be teaching?” he said.
This Fall, PCC said they have more than 19,000 students. Last fall they said they had almost 18,000, meaning they have about 1,200 more students this semester.
“This is definitely a more affordable option, and not only that; they’re very flexible if you have a job,” Xavier Coronado said.
Coronado is a student in PCC’s robotics program who just transferred from Arizona State University. It was there at the university that he used student loans in order to enroll.
“I was spending close to ten grand a semester, so compared to that, it’s like 8 grand cheaper,” Coronado said.
However, now Coronado said he isn’t using student loans to go to PCC. He’s hoping to use the college’s partnership with Northern Arizona University to further his goal of being in the semiconductor field after college.
“Because it’s so affordable I am able to pay it with the current job I have,” he said. “I’ll prepare and just give myself the best chance to land a job.”
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
