A Conversation with Yavapai College President, Dr. Lisa B. Rhine

by Angie Johnson-Schmit, TG Magazine, Prescott Valley

Career and Technical Education (CTE) has been at the heart of Yavapai College for decades. Over the past several years, the college has expanded their programs and facilities in a big way. In the fall of 2007, Yavapai College opened the Career and Technical Education Center (CTEC) in Prescott, Arizona. CTEC is home to many of the CTE certificate programs offered by the college, especially those programs that require a significant amount of physical space.

We sat down with Dr. Lisa B. Rhine, President of Yavapai College to discuss the college’s role in career and technical education as well as her thoughts on the current state of the trades in our region. What follows is that conversation, lightly edited for clarity and length.

TG Magazine: How would you describe Yavapai College’s approach to CTE programs?

Dr. Rhine: Three things, and I call them the three “R’s.”

The first “R” is Responsiveness. And that’s going to the industry partners and identifying what the need is. These are local businesses, local industry clusters. We hold summits with industry clusters to find out what kind ofemployees they need, and then we endeavor to meet that need. We also try to understand who the employees are so that we can place our students. Because in the end,it’s about them getting a living wage job.

The next “R” is Relevant. We need to be constantly looking at what we’re teaching in the career and technical areas and make sure that it’s relevant to the field, which is changing all the time. If you think about the auto industry for example, it’s transformed from down-and-dirty, hands-on machining and now we’re teaching computer numerical controls. Our desire is that they inform us about the changes in the industry and that we make sure we have relevant curriculum.

The other thing, and I know John Morgan, our Dean of Career and Technical Education, would tell you this, is we try to do real world exposure. That’s the third “R,” Real World. We try to have equipment that is identical to what you’ll see on the floor in the industry.

We also try to make sure that we have individual attention and stations. So instead of having five students working on one trainer, one piece of equipment, we try to make it one-onone as much as possible. The students get the most real world, hands-on experience that they can. Those are the three things that I would say are important to me.

TG Magazine: What need does CTE fulfill for the community as a whole?

Dr. Rhine: One of the things I talked about in my first convocation speech was the concept of the real ratio of jobs in any successful economy. It’s one to two to seven. For every one advanced degree you need in any industry, you also need two professional or bachelor level degrees, and seven technicians.

Those seven technicians need to have skills beyond high school, typically either a certificate or an associate degree. In any industry, it’s been that way since the 1950s and it’ll be that way in the 2030s.

What’s happening in the various fields, particularly in manufacturing, is they’re facing a double whammy. They just cannot find entry-level workers with the skills necessary to fill jobs and they also have a “graying of the workforce” where all theseexperienced workers are retiring. And both are happening at the same time.

These are advanced, skilled jobs that lead to high wages and they’re in high demand. It’s critical that we do what we can to meet that need. What would the economy look like if we didn’t have Yavapai College? And what would that mean for our local community? And workers, jobs, and employers? The economy could virtually collapse if we didn’t keep producing technicians. Employers would have to figure out on their own how to train people.

TG Magazine: Businesses would have to go back to old school apprenticeship. That’s time intensive and they don’t really have time to do that.

Dr. Rhine: It’s a real concern. What does it mean for all of us if we can’t fill these jobs and we can’t keep these companies here?

"THESE ARE ADVANCED SKILLED JOBS THAT LEAD TO HIGH WAGES AND THEY’RE IN HIGH DEMAND. IT’S CRITICAL THAT WE DO WHAT WE CAN TO MEET THAT NEED." - Dr. Lisa B. Rhine

TG Magazine: Is there trouble filling these jobs right now?

Dr. Rhine: Yes. John Morgan would tell you that businesses snatch them up even before they finish the program. For the

Yavapai College students head to class at the Career and Technical Education facility in Prescott, AZ.

first time, we’re having people call in September for June grads and we don’t have any available because they were already all placed. And these students, within three to five years of graduating, are in six figures in terms of income. They’re so in demand. It’s just a critically important element but it’s also something that the community needs as a whole. We’re doing the best we can. Even if we produced all that we could, we’d still probably not have enough. But we’re doing our part to try to keep the economy thriving and to keep the businesses here.

TG Magazine: How do you help local businesses connect with the CTE students?

Dr. Rhine: We have a Regional Economic Development Center. They host job fairs on the regular and are the ones that are connected most closely with our industry partners. They arrange for internships and career opportunities for students. They’re the connector in that regard.

TG Magazine: So, students see there’s a job fair coming up and they can go and find out who’s hiring?

Dr. Rhine: Yes, and they are always well attended. Sometimes we have to turn industries away because we don’t have a space for them because there are so many jobs available.

TG Magazine: What have you found leads students to pursue a CTE certificate rather than a transfer program or a traditional degree program?

Dr. Rhine: This is a challenge for us. I have parents of college-aged kids and I’ll say, wow, look at all these opportunities in career tech and they pay very well and they’re in high demand. And everybody’s always like, oh, that’s great, but not for my kid.

It’s a perception that career technical programs are somehow dirty jobs perhaps, or less affluent or in some way “less than,” which is absolutely not the truth. It’s, again, that false bill of goods that you have to have the Bachelor’s degree for a prosperous life, right?

TG Magazine: It seems like the focus in public schools has been on college prep for quite a while, but now more people are becoming aware that we need our plumbers and our welders and our 3-D printer technicians.

Dr. Rhine: But that was also happening at the high school level when they had vocational programs or vocational tracks, which seem to have gone away. It’s kind of migrated to the college from the high school option. The other thing, and this is just my own little theory is that everybody that’s [working] in a high school has a bachelor’s degree or above, and that was successful for them. I think that that’s what they know.

TG Magazine: You mean the teachers in high school?

Dr. Rhine: Teachers, and all the others that work there. We’ve been working really hard with the advisors and the teachers in the high schools and with our recruiting folks in our admission office to try to help them to understand the possibilities.

TG Magazine: Are you talking about the career counselors?

Dr. Rhine: Yes. A student might come and say, oh, I want to be in the medical field, but they think nursing, doctor. When there’s all these other options and technicians, right? I don’t think folks really know the options and once they do and they learn about the demand and the possibility, that sells it. Getting them out to the Career and Technical Education Center, people always are like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.

TG Magazine: Is there anything in particular that you’re looking at for Yavapai College in the next five to ten years?

Dr. Rhine: We conducted a gap analysis with a third-party provider, and we did it to look at the possibility of offering four-year degrees. We also want to see if there’s gaps in need and programs that we offer in the CTE areas. We did create a new Verde Valley Skilled Trade Center that has four career technical programs in it currently. We’re talking about phase two and what do we include in that? That gap analysis will hopefully tell us.

Students in the Construction certificate program put their new knowledge and skills to work.

We know definitely that healthcare is going to be a big one, just because of the aging population and the expansion of health services here. So, we know that’ll be a big one. Artificial intelligence is big in Arizona. Manufacturing is big in Arizona, so we’re expecting to see some of that here. More and more companies are migrating up here, which is exciting.

TG Magazine: A lot of people are considering career changes right now. What does Yavapai College offer for them?

Dr. Rhine: We have a couple of programs that are very attractive for career switchers or people that are in the second phase of life and want to do something different. A real popular one is our Viticulture and Enology program. The folks that go into that program know what they want. It attracts a certain demographic. And that’s probably true with gunsmithing too. It’s an older group typically, but they’re very, very focused on that craft.

We did add a brewing technology track. We’re considering distilling as a third. You know we’re in a tourism area and we need to figure out a way to create jobs that would support someone creating their own winery or brewery. When I was in Virginia, I lived in coastal Virginia Beach Chesapeake area, and there were craft breweries just popping up everywhere. And, very much like the wine community, they didn’t compete with one another.

They worked together to support and build each other up. They created what they called warehouse districts where there’d be all these breweries. It became a destination for visitors, but also for the locals. I thought that would work perfectly here. It would be a destination for tourists and locals, and could work in the same way as the wine tourism regions have in Yavapai County.

TG Magazine: How long does it typically take to complete a CTE certificate program?

Dr. Rhine: Basically, we have three different kinds. The associate degrees are typically 60 credits, which takes two years. Then, there are what we call regular certificates that are 30 credits or more, and then shortterm certificates are less than 30 credits. We try and make sure that those are stackable to the higher-level degree for the higher-level credential. So if you take a micro or a short-term credential, it stacks to the certificate and then can stack to the associate’s degree if it’s offered in that area.

For instance, there’s behavior health technicians. Spectrum Health and several other mental health and addiction recovery organizations need behavior health technicians. Individuals that are coming to them to take those entry level jobs have no training at all and they needed them to come with a core set of skills.

So, we created a behavioral health technician certificate, 18 credits. It’s a lot in one semester, but easily it can be done in a summer and a fall. And Spectrum Health is paying for their folks to go through because they want all of their folks to be trained at a certain level.

TG Magazine: What kind of coursework is involved in that?

Dr. Rhine: There are sociology courses, psychology courses, and I believe some communication courses, but it’s a collection. We worked with Spectrum and they said, we want this one, this one, and this one. Now they want to expand so that they have an upper level.

That’s a great partnership because they’re actually funding their folks to go through those programs and then when they do, they get an increase in pay.

"...IT CAN SET YOU ON A TRAJECTORY FOR LIFE AND ONE THAT YOU NEVER EVEN KNEW YOU LOVED." - Dr. Lisa B. Rhine

TG Magazine: How do you find your instructors for the CTA courses? What are the requirements?

Dr. Rhine: Again, it varies by program. It typically comes from industry partners. It usually starts as adjunct where they’ll teach a course. Often, we’ll get folks that are retiring, second career. They want to come back and teach. We rely heavily on adjuncts thatare in industry. We like that because they’re doing the latest, greatest work, so they can teach the latest, greatest.

It’s been challenging sometimes to get faculty. You know our housing issues in terms of housing costs. When I got hired, people said, oh, look in Prescott Valley, look in Chino. And that was true then, but that was three short years ago. Now, everything’s top dollar.

TG Magazine: What do you wish more people knew about Yavapai College’s CTE programs?

Dr. Rhine: Just how life changing they can be. I mean, it can set you on a trajectory for life and one that you never even knew you loved. It’s been true for my son when he came here and got a degree in computer science. He found his gift and I think we can do that for more people.

What we do is help students change their lives by leaving them better off than when they came to us. That’s our goal.

This article was originally published in the 2022 Spring Edition of TG Magazine. For more info on TG Magazine, go to: https://TalkingGlassMag.com