The Future of America: Career Education Plan Announced by Whitehouse

Community colleges offer a plethora of program options today, ensuring everyone who enrolls in one of these two-year schools can embark on the career of their dreams. For some, community college is a stepping stone into higher education that allows them to transfer to a college or university and pursue a four-year degree. For others, community college is the whole ball of wax – the training necessary to launch an exciting career path. For those who fall into the latter category, here is a list of 10 exciting fields you can enter with only a two-year degree under your belt.

Hospitality Manager

Hospitality managers can work anywhere there is a restaurant, hotel, or cruise ship – which means just about anywhere in the world. While many work their way up the hospitality hierarchy without formal training, an associate degree and on-the-job experience will get you where you want to go much faster. According to a report by Fox Business, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates the average salary for a food-service manager to be $46,320, while a hotel manager averages $45,800 annually.

Graphic Designer

Let your creativity shine with a position as a graphic designer. This professional works with a wide range of mediums, from print publications to film and the web. Graphic designers consider the vision of each individual client while weighing the needs of the target market to create messages that are attractive and effective. A two-year degree program is

Discrimination has become a point of focus at Maricopa Community Colleges in Phoenix, Arizona, as the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has launched an investigation of some of the practices of the college system. The investigations are in response to concerns raised over two key issues: the request for immigration status from some students and the failure to provide appropriate services to non-English speaking students.

Concerns Raised by Civil Rights Center

Concerns over these issues were initially raised mmigration status. Accordiby a non-profit organization based out of Phoenix, the Civil Rights Center. Information on this organization is limited, but according to a report in the New York Times last year, the bare-boned group is run out of the Phoenix home of its director, Silverio Garcia Jr. Last year, Garcia filed a class-action complaint with the Department of Education, alleging that teachers in Phoenix schools were improperly transferred due to speaking accents that some children had difficulty understanding.

“This was one culture telling another culture that you are not speaking correctly,” Garcia told the New York Times.

The complaint, filed in May 2010, was closed in late August 2011 after the state agreed to alter its policy, stating that only teachers who were fluent in English could teach students learning English. State officials said accents were not a part of their monitoring process to determine whether teachers should remain in the classroom.

This year, Silverio Garcia’s organization has once again targeted Phoenix

Healthcare Careers: In-demand Careers

Community colleges have become a popular place to jumpstart a new career, whether you are entering the professional workforce for the first time or looking to change career paths. One of the hottest degree trends at these two-year schools right now is health care, with plenty of choices in areas of study and ample job opportunities after graduation. You might work directly with patients or find an administrative position in the healthcare industry – and it all begins with training at your local community college.

Why Community College for Health Care?

Many interested in the healthcare field make the mistake of thinking a four-year degree is necessary to land a well-paying job in the industry. However, several graduates who come into their jobs with two-year associate degrees can make excellent salaries with minimal training time. Some of the top jobs in health care requiring an associate degree can earn an average salary of $50,000 or more, and opportunities for advancement and salary increases are always possible. When you offset this salary change with education costs that are a fraction of what they would be at a four-year school, you can see why many are choosing the community college route to launch their healthcare careers.

This video describes the healthcare program at Sampson Community College in Clinton, North Carolina.

Another advantage of choosing a community college for your healthcare degree

Although STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects is touted as the wave of the future for practical fields of study that can launch lucrative careers, it appears that women back in the 2000s were not taking full advantage of the STEM opportunities presented at community colleges today. The gap was a concern for employers who wondered if there would be enough skilled workers to fill their positions in the future. Why were women appearing to shy away from STEM degree programs? There were many reasons for the drop, but the primary focus of educators and employers wass to help women overcome the challenges of STEM studies in order to produce a qualified, competitive workforce for the 21^st century. And those efforts appear to have paid off.

An Upward Trend

When this article was written in 2012, the trend was downwards. Data in 2020 suggests that the number of women pursuing fields of study in STEM subjects appears to be increasing. According to a report at the Community College Times, women earned 34 percent of two-year STEM degrees in 1997. In 2020, according to USAFacts, the number of women graduating in STEM subjects shows steady year-over-year growth.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities states that a college education remains the brightest path to a future of mobility and economic security. The STEM fields offer a particularly lucrative path, with higher than average salaries and projected job