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  1. #1
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    MN: MnSCU orders tech colleges to train fewer electricians

    I placed this article here because we're being inundated with ILLEGAL ELECTRICIANS. Are we to believe that this field is saturated? Or is it "saturated" with ILLEGALS who know only 3rd world skills and are putting Americans at risk?

    MnSCU orders tech colleges to train fewer electricians

    Union convinces education officials there aren't enough jobs in the popular field
    BY PAUL TOSTO and JULIE FORSTER
    Pioneer Press
    Article Last Updated: 04/02/2007 09:46:33 AM CDT

    Electrician program letter
    Electrician program letter

    Worried they may be turning out too many electricians, leaders of Minnesota's technical college system have ordered their schools to cap enrollments for electrician training - one of the system's most popular skilled trades.

    Detailed in a recent memo, the limits will scale back enrollment in electrician programs beginning with this fall's class, and no new programs will be approved.

    Officials with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system say it's the first time MnSCU has capped a degree program. The decision came after talks with an electricians union, which argued the system is training too many electricians for the market, worsening unemployment.

    Demand for electricians has slowed during the past year. But some observers worry MnSCU's decision may trigger shortages when the state's construction economy rebounds. Managing supply is a tricky business; even as they ordered the cap, some MnSCU officials didn't seem completely convinced there is a problem.

    "We thought our numbers were OK," said Manuel Lopez, MnSCU associate vice chancellor for continuous improvement. "There is a possibility that we have been oversupplying the market." MnSCU, he added, plans to study degree offerings in all trades "to see if supply and demand are in sync."

    MnSCU trains about 80 percent of the state's electricians in 13 technical colleges. The system still places about nine of every 10 graduates in jobs, and enrollment has fallen on its own in the past couple of
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    years, from a peak of 493 in 2004 to 460 in 2006.

    Still, MnSCU agreed the schools were producing too many electricians for the market after talks with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292. In its letter, MnSCU cited an oversupply of electricians and a high unemployment rate among electricians as evidence of the need to cap enrollments.

    But are there too many electricians? That's up for debate.

    "It doesn't appear from the data that the supply or demand for electricians has changed over the last five years," said Oriane Casale, assistant director of the state's labor market information office. "Yes, there is a slowdown in the construction industry now, and the demand for electricians will slow, but we don't expect that to last for more than a year or so at the very most."

    MnSCU is behind the curve if its schools start limiting enrollment next year. By the end of 2008 and 2009, demand likely will be as strong as it was in 2004 and 2005, Casale said. "By 2009, the construction industry, as far as we can tell, is going to be back in full swing."

    Union leaders say they've been concerned for years that MnSCU was supplying too many electricians. Steve Claypatch, business manager for Local 292 and a statewide voice for electrical workers, said he started talking to MnSCU about it again last summer.

    "As soon as you start seeing the (graduation) numbers and start applying a little bit of political pressure, they don't want to be embarrassed," Claypatch said. "They should not be training for unemployment."

    Claypatch filled a recent Minnesota House hearing with unemployed electricians from around the state to reinforce the argument that workers were suffering, partly because MnSCU was graduating too many new electricians. "We're going to keep the political pressure on them so they follow through," Claypatch said, noting MnSCU's current request to lawmakers for a two-year, $177 million budget increase.

    In its letter, MnSCU did not set numerical targets for electrician programs, requiring only that the schools limit fall enrollment to a size smaller than last year's class. The restrictions will remain in place, Lopez wrote, "until the labor supply and demand is projected to be in balance by my office."

    Construction-electrician programs are among the largest areas of study offered at Anoka Technical and St. Paul College.

    Donovan Schwichtenberg, president of St. Paul College, said that, while the enrollment cap will have little effect on the school overall, the electrician program is important and provides training that lets students obtain jobs at good salaries.

    At Anoka Tech, the electrician program has a job-placement rate above 95 percent, President Anne Weyandt said. But officials have noted in the past year or two that the program has been filling more slowly, suggesting it might be proper for MnSCU to examine the overall market.

    School presidents, she added, are planning to talk with MnSCU leaders in coming weeks about the cap and its future.

    Paul Tosto covers higher education and can be reached at ptosto@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2119.
    http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ ... ck_check=1
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  2. #2
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    I never once beleived we don't have citizens to meet the demands. It's just an excuse to import cheap labor.
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  3. #3
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Makes you wonder doesn't it? Too many electricians? I don't buy it.
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  4. #4
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    This story is shocking the union has the power to short circut a college and
    blacking out a program. Watts causing this haywire overload in multimeter
    little Edisons? To much A/C D/C or is the turbulance just wind generated by an overload of 5 watt static mungers?

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