Getting people to enter job market

• Ptacek

Pete Ptacek from WITC – New Richmond talked about the benefit of a technical education to Prescott Kiwanis Thursday. -- Photo by Jason Schulte

Talk about it

PRESCOTT--The benefits of earning a degree from a technical college are endless, said Pete Ptacek of Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College (WITC) – New Richmond, who spoke to Prescott Kiwanis Thursday.

For the graduate, Ptacek said, nine out of every 10 graduates are employed within six months of graduation and median salaries for associate degree grads are $36,000 right out of college.

For the taxpayer, nearly 19,000 students carried some college credit with them from high school to a technical college and at least 54 percent of Wisconsin’s jobs in the next decade require technical education.

And, for employers, more than 98 percent of companies say Wisconsin Technical Colleges’ training meets or exceeds expectations.

“Our mission,” Ptacek explains, “is to get people educated to enter the job market,” unlike a four-year school, he added, whose objective is learning skills to get into a career.

Tech schools, he concluded, train students to learn a specific job, which then would lead to a career.

“Everything we do is technical,” he said.

For more please read the Jan. 23 print version of the Herald.

Tags: communities, business, prescott, wisconsin