The New York Times reported:
FOR workers who have been laid off, the recession amounts to a crash course in the school of hard knocks. Many of them are responding by taking crash courses of a different sort: programs at technical or vocational institutions that provide marketable skills in a hurry, often in fields completely different from the ones in which they have spent their careers.
Jonathan Beam, 25, enrolled last year in a course to become an electrical technician, after the closing of a physical therapy practice where he was an executive office assistant. Before that, he supervised a hotel banquet department. The course, at the Houston campus of Everest College, has provided him with a chance to make ends meet — and to make a clean break with his résumé.
“I just wanted something completely different from the hectic pace I was used to and the Word documents and PowerPoint presentations,” he said.
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For Mr. Beam, the new career choice reflects a lifelong interest. “Ever since I was a kid,” he said, “I liked taking things apart and seeing how they work.”
Vocational colleges and for-profit learning centers are appealing partly because of their convenience and efficiency. Unlike traditional campuses, they tend to offer a workmanlike atmosphere that allows progress to be made at a fast clip.
Mr. Beam said that he considers his customer-service experience and other skills picked up in previous jobs as “always something I could fall back on,” but that he views opportunities as an electrical technician to be “limitless.”
“Anything that has a plug in the wall, we can work with,” he said.
He is especially interested in finding a job in renewable energy, on a wind farm or at a hydroelectric plant. Displaying the pragmatic streak that led him to enroll in his course, he explained, “You can work for a couple of years, make killer money and learn an excellent trade.” Read More
