Economy sends business people back to school for fresh skills

Worrying about their job prospects and sometimes finding themselves with too much time on their hands many northern Nevada residents are returning to school.

Some recent graduates, meanwhile, are deciding to delay their entry into an unwelcoming job market and instead are staying in school to pursue graduate-level degrees or other coursework.

"People are looking at how they can make themselves more valuable," says Kathy Gamboa, director of the University of Phoenix campus in Reno.

In some instances, she says workers who lost jobs during the downturn are learning new skills to pursue new careers. Others figure that improved skills will help them keep the jobs they have.

Among the University of Phoenix programs that are drawing interest, she says, are a master's in management that sharpens the skills of business people, a school counseling program for students looking for a possible career change and a bachelor's in business with an emphasis on green and sustainable practices for students who want to position themselves for the economy's future.

Truckee Meadows Community College, meanwhile, has seen an influx of students that includes an increasing number of former construction workers who want new skills to pursue a different career.

Sidney Sullivan, an employment specialist in the school's re-entry center, says health-related careers such as nursing and radiological technology are getting a fresh look from a number of students who are coming in from the economic storms.

Others are working on business degrees as they prepare for new lives as entrepreneurs.

Another sign of the times, Sullivan says: Students appear to be taking more classes each semester, perhaps because they can't find work and decide to use their otherwise idle time productively.

The University of Nevada, Reno, hasn't seen a surge of students returning from the world of work, says Nancy Markee, director of UNR's academic advising center.

"We haven't seen as many as I thought we would," she says. "I would have expected more."

Some potential students who have lost jobs, Markee says, may not have the money to return to school.

UNR is making a concerted effort, she says, to reach students who left the university before they completed a degree.

The pitch: College graduates earn 30 to 50 percent more during their lifetimes than folks who didn't finish their degrees.

And UNR's marketing effort emphasizes the possibility that financial aid may help otherwise strapped students.

The school believes hundreds of potential participants in the program live in northern Nevada, and some of them are only a class or two short of a degree.

The challenge, says Nancy Markee, director of UNR's academic advising center, is tracking down those former students so the university can make its pitch.

Some students are learning that a return to school gives them more than new skills to use their career.

Gamboa notes that classes also provide a networking opportunity where students can learn about the hiring plans of the employers of their fellow students.