Tag: Benny Cenac Education

13 Million Available Jobs for Diploma Holders

Despite the push from policymakers to steer more people toward a four-year degree, a new report shows that 13 million available jobs are still there for those with nothing more than a high school diploma.

The figure was among the top-line findings of a report released Tuesday by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, which shows how the number of jobs available for certain education attainment levels has changed over time. The center’s researchers collaborated with JP Morgan Chase & Co. to produce the report.

“The fact that good jobs for high school workers have persisted to the extent that they have is a testament to the resilience of this pathway,” the researchers concluded in the report. “The high school economy will likely remain a stable pathway to good jobs in the near term even as older workers with no more than a high school diploma continue to retire.”

In taking a historic look at jobs available for each education attainment level, researchers found that in 1991, there were 15 million good high school jobs, 12 million good middle-skills jobs and 18 million good bachelor’s degree jobs. By 2016, the high school pathway decreased to 13 million good jobs, the middle-skills pathway grew to 16 million good jobs and the bachelor’s degree pathway doubled to 36 million good jobs.

Researchers defined “good jobs” as ones that pay at least $35,000 and average $56,000 for workers with less than a bachelor’s degree and average $65,000 for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

They were quick to underscore that the future economy for those with nothing more than a high school diploma remains uncertain, but as of now it’s continuing to provide good jobs. About 27 percent of young workers ages 25-34, or 2.9 million young workers total, who have only their high school diploma have managed to nab a good job. That figure is down only slightly from 29 percent in 1991.

Overall, researchers found that the high school pathway still provides 20 percent of all good jobs.

“While it’s no surprise that the BA economy has doubled the number of good jobs it provides, it really struck us that the high school economy still provides 13 million good jobs,” Anthony Carnevale, director of CEW and lead author of the report, said in a statement. “We also found it surprising that even though blue-collar jobs declined, middle-skills jobs have grown considerably.”

Indeed, all of the growth of new good jobs available to those without a bachelor’s degree has been in “middle-skills jobs,” especially among those that require an associate’s degree.

Researchers defined the middle-skills industry as those jobs that require more education than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree, including certificates and certification programs, licenses, associate’s degrees or some college work. The middle-skills pathway encompasses 24 percent of all good jobs, they found, and most of the industry’s growth was in skilled-services industries and skilled-technical good jobs in blue-collar industries.

“Despite the common misconception that the middle-skills economy has hollowed out, good jobs in this sector have seen robust growth, even in the blue collar sector,” Jeff Strohl, director of research at the CEW and co-author of the report, said in a statement.

To be sure, workers with a bachelor’s degree have access to the greatest number of good jobs – 36 million, to be exact, or 56 percent of all good jobs. Researchers also found that 74 percent of those with bachelor’s degrees or higher have good jobs compared to 38 percent of workers without a bachelor’s degree.

Click here to read more about Georgetown’s research on education and the workforce.  Click here for more education related news.

 

Choosing the Right College or University

Choosing a college or university to attend is a major life decision, but it’s not one that you have to make alone. U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings can take some of the stress out of the school research and selection process and help students find a college that’s a good fit.  One thing you can do to get clarity on the best fit is take one of several online personality quizzes to help you narrow down your choices.

The rankings provide a good starting point for students trying to compare schools. The four overall rankings – National Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges – are based on factors that indicate academic quality, such graduation rates and faculty resources.

But the best school for each student, experts say, is one that will most completely meet his or her needs, which go beyond academics. This is why U.S. News offers dozens of more-focused rankings and lists to help prospective undergraduate students compare schools based on the qualities that matter most to them, such as ethnic diversity on campus and percent of students who live in university housing.

Chances are, there’s a ranking or list that’s relevant to you. For example, veterans can research the schools that are best-equipped to serve them; students interested in historically black colleges and universities can explore the HBCU rankings; and international students can learn which schools already have a strong non-U.S. student community on campus.

Affordability is another key consideration for students and their families, so U.S. News created lists of Best Value Schools and schools that award merit aid to the most students. The Paying for College knowledge center offers additional insights and tips about different types of education aid, including grants, loans and scholarships.

In addition to the rankings, prospective students can explore extensive statistical profiles for the more than 1,800 schools in the U.S. News Best Colleges directory. These profiles are packed with information about a school’s cost, financial aid policies, admissions requirements, student body and more. Families can see additional data points by signing up for the U.S. News College Compass.

Together, the rankings and profiles can help students learn about a range of school options – public and private, large and small – throughout the country, some of which they might not have considered before. They are valuable tools that can help you find a college or university that’s right for you.  Here are a few of the most frequently searched categories:

Category 1: National Universities

Schools in the National Universities category offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and Ph.D. programs.

#1
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ

#2
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

#3
Columbia University (tie)
New York, NY

#3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (tie)
Cambridge, MA

#3
University of Chicago (tie)
Chicago, IL

#3
Yale University (tie)
New Haven, CT

Category 2: Liberal Arts Colleges

Liberal Arts Colleges emphasize undergraduate education and award at least half of their degrees in the liberal arts fields of study.

#1
Williams College
Williamstown, MA

#2
Amherst College
Amherst, MA

#3
Swarthmore College (tie)
Swarthmore, PA

#3
Wellesley College (tie)
Wellesley, MA

Category 3: A Plus Schools for B Students

If you’re a good student with less-than-stellar test scores or a so-so GPA, these are the schools for you. These colleges, which have strong ratings in the 2019 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings, accept a significant number of students with nonstratospheric transcripts.

#1

Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY

#2

Pennsylvania State University–University Park
University Park, PA

#3

American University
Washington, DC

Click Here for the full list of categories, rankings and lists. Click here for more education news.

 

The Bacteria All Around Us

From the great outdoors to our internal organs, the world is awash in unseen bacteria. Most people assume that these germs are all dangerous but biologists know better. Studying these poorly understood microbes could better reveal how they function as the “invisible backbone of life.”  Victoria Orphan of San Diego, California and now a geobiologist at Caltech, has loved the ocean for as long as she can remember. She now spends her days exploring the hidden single-celled world found in ocean water. She studies how bacteria and other microscopic life shape the deep sea.  Bacteria play central roles in many ecosystems. These include the oceans, soil and atmosphere. They’re also a big part of the global food web. Bacteria make it possible for all other life on Earth to exist. That’s why scientists say these single-celled organisms are the invisible backbone of all life — at least on Earth.  Yet there’s plenty we don’t know about them. Scientists think they’ve identified fewer than one percent of all bacterial species. That’s been driving Orphan and others to explore the mysteries of their one-celled world. They suspect bacteria will prove key to understanding — and protecting — Earth’s most important natural resources.  Specifically, Orphan studies a type of bacteria that live on the sea floor and gobble up methane.  Methane can seep out of the Earth on the sea floor. Some scientists say that even more methane would escape into the atmosphere if it wasn’t for marine bacteria. Certain of those bacteria dine on methane. That allows the oceans to trap a huge amount of the gas. “These microorganisms are the gatekeepers. They prevent ocean methane from getting into the atmosphere where it can change greenhouse-gas levels,” Orphan explains.

 

Finding single-celled organisms on the vast sea floor can be a challenge. Through the window of a submarine, she looks for clusters of clams and giant tube worms. These organisms signal that invisible marine bacteria live there, too. Wherever those methane-eaters live, they create new molecules as they dine. Other organisms use those new molecules as food. An entire food web springs up on the ocean floor.  Orphan and her team have found methane-eating bacteria along cracks on the sea floor, where this gas is seeping out. These cracks often happen where two tectonic plates bump into each other and create enormous canyons. Some bacteria, they learned, can eat methane only by partnering with other single-celled organisms called archaea. That important detail could help scientists better predict how much methane is escaping into the air, says Orphan.

 

More than 1,000 scientists around the world are helping collect samples. They’re looking in a host of different environments, then testing them for bacterial DNA.  So far the researchers have collected 100,000 samples. They’ve catalogued bacteria from the deepest ocean. They’ve found bacteria on the International Space Station, some 350 kilometers (220 miles) above Earth. They’ve discovered bacteria in exotic locations like the Amazon rainforest and ordinary places like public toilets.

 

Click here to read more about Victoria Orphan’s research on bacteria and here for more education-related articles.

 

Scientists Uncover Rain Forest in Mount Lico

Mount Lico is a relatively isolated cliff jutting out nearly 2,300 feet above the plains of northern Mozambique. Yet for hundreds of years, people were unaware that inside the ancient volcano lay a hidden rain forest, protected by the volcano’s high walls.  Discovered by conservation biologist Julian Bayliss in 2012, the untouched biosphere is a gift for scientists. The only disturbances it has experienced over centuries are natural, such as droughts, as opposed to man-made. And so it offers a benchmark that scientists can use to compare the full effect of human interference on rain forests.  Now, for the first time, scientists have scaled the 125-meters up a near-vertical rock face to explore the undisturbed rain forest within. Bayliss took five years to assemble a team that included biologists, botanists, lepidopterists, and other experts from Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The team also included rock climbers who trained the scientists for the expedition from May 10-24—an adventure that sounds straight out of a novel.  After only one expedition, scientists have already found a new species of butterfly and a mouse species that has yet to be classified, and expect to find more previously undiscovered animals. Because Mount Lico’s habitat is a rain forest, unique plants and animals have developed there, and can help us better understand both the past and future of the natural world. The discovery is also noteworthy because it’s the second undisturbed rain forest that scientists have found in Mozambique thanks to Google Earth—offering an example of how big data can lead to new discoveries in long-overlooked habitats. Click Here for more information on Mount Lico.

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LDOE Begins New Career Option Course

The LDOE has recently announced, “select school systems across the state are piloting a new course designed to help ensure all students are prepared for success following high school graduation. The course, called Quest for Success, allows middle and high school students to develop essential workplace skills, explore various careers and industry sectors, and learn about themselves and their interests in order to successfully navigate high school, post-secondary education and career pathways”.

The article explains, “the ultimate indication of our students’ career readiness and our effectiveness in preparing them is the success they find after they leave us–the extent to which they are employed in jobs they enjoy and that allow them to earn a good living, support their families and meaningfully contribute to their communities,” said State Superintendent John White. “These are bold ambitions that will require families, educators and industry leaders to work together, but the implementation of Quest for Success, first through the pilot schools and then statewide, is a step in the right direction.”

Quest for Success, which replaces the current course called Journey to Careers, was written by 22 educators as part of their participation in the Louisiana Educator Voice Fellowship. The fellowship, a partnership between the Louisiana Department of Education and national nonprofit organization America Achieves, supports the state’s comprehensive effort to improve career readiness, which includes its Jump Start program.

Quest for Success is now being piloted in 38 school systems, and only teachers in those school systems who completed a specialized training are allowed to lead the course this year. Throughout the 2018-2019 school year, the course will be studied and revised based on teacher and student input, and a formal evaluation will be conducted at the year’s end.

For the full article and more information on the release of Quest for Success, click here.

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SLCC Maritime Training Receives Cenac Barge Donation

South Louisiana Community College’s Maritime Training Program has received the donation of a fully refurbished barge from Cenac Marine Services.  The barge, which replicates a standard Cenac tank barge, is located in Munson Slip in Houma. SLCC tankerman training is being held there. This barge will allow for more hands-on training to a school that was badly in need of better training materials.  Depending on the size of the class, hands-on barge training can last approximately 8 hours long, according to a statement issued by Cenac. For now, the goal is a new class every two weeks. The very first batch of future mariners began training on August 12th.  Certified Cenac captains are serving as instructors, on their off time. They are certified by the state of Louisiana to teach the course, which takes a total of 32 hours to complete. After that course completion each candidate must complete basic firefighter training. Once that is done, the Cenac statement says, the candidates are certified as oil tankermen.  “From the very start of this project I have been excited about what we can offer to the community and to those interested in becoming tankermen,” Cenac said. “My company and I are fortunate to have the opportunity to provide a hands-on learning experience to many people for years to come.” If you or someone you know is interested in enrolling in SLCC’s maritime training program, you can register at 331 Dickson Road in Houma where the barge is housed or to learn more about South Louisiana Community College and its maritime training offerings, visit http://www.solacc.edu.

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