Originally opened in 1969 as a training facility for law enforcement personnel and firefighters, San Diego Miramar College has expanded its role over the years in preparing the next generation of job candidates for the work force.
Although today Miramar still trains between 3,000 and 4,000 law enforcement students on a rolling basis, the 125-acre campus also serves as the training grounds for the area's future laboratory technicians, information technology specialists, business managers and accountants.
Recently, the need-for-qualified-workers mantra echoed by employers across the nation has put the pressure on four-year universities and, indirectly, community colleges like Miramar to ante up students with enough know-how to fill local jobs. And with 12,000 students enrolled at Miramar each semester, the potential is high that some of them will graduate and later fill key positions in San Diego.
Patricia Hsieh  |
Miramar College President Patricia Hsieh, an active member of the Asian Business Association of San Diego, has made it her job to track industry trends and keep up with employer needs.
"If you look at the environment 15 years down the road in San Diego, biotech needs a lot of individuals who have associate's degrees to work in the lab areas," Hsieh said.
Those in the retail, manufacturing and construction industries also seek candidates who have continued their education beyond high school, she said.
To better qualify students for the work force, Miramar has teamed with local companies to directly immerse students in the kind of work they might one day perform on a daily basis.
Partnerships with local companies have been a significant force in helping accelerate students' careers, Hsieh said. And the benefits can be twofold since those students often end up applying for jobs at the company.
Hawthorne Machinery Co., local Toyota dealerships and the city of San Diego have all joined forces with the community college in recent years working to train students who might one day apply their skills to that same company or organization.
"A lot of times the industry has to spend the first couple weeks training students before they can start their work," Hsieh said. "We give them orientation, prepare them so when they arrive at the industry, the business, they can start their work immediately because they understand what's expected of them."
So far, she said, the results have been a success.
"We'd like to see more and more businesses and industry work with us in this kind of approach," Hsieh said, pointing out that she would like to include more companies involved in computer sciences.
In an effort to attract more students to higher education, Miramar has also reached out to area high schools to get students interested in a future career.
"We kind of try to feed the industry with the future work force by starting early," Hsieh said.
For more than 10 years, Hawthorne Machinery has trained Miramar students in diesel technology as part of its regional occupancy program.
Hawthorne recruiters visit area high schools as early as ninth grade to spark their curiosity about the field. By the time they reach their senior year, students interested in the program can apply for scholarships to study at Miramar.
Stephen Reese, a corporate recruiter for Hawthorne, said many of those students have gone on to fill significant positions within the company.
"The school has an over 90 percent employment rate," he said. "We don't have room enough for 20 technicians, so those individuals go anywhere from transportation services to the department of transportation -- whatever the case may be."
But challenging students to push themselves, instead of allow themselves to get by on the minimum requirements needed to graduate, has caused educator heartache in recent years.
"I think that is probably a challenge we all face," Hsieh said.
As a means of monitoring student achievement, Miramar administers placement assessments and gathers the data to form conclusions about where students stand on an academic scale.
"This way we will not only admit students but we have a goal in mind," Hsieh said.
She maintains, however, that the school has been a role model for some who grew up without one.
"If students come to us, regardless of what their educational goals would be, we try to help them," she said.
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