In Ohio, fewer than half of those who enter colleges and universities graduate, and many of those who do don’t walk into a job related to their degree.

All this comes as employers say they’re not getting enough workers with the skills they need.

Experts say advanced degrees are more important than ever, but institutions need to do a better job of preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow. To that end, nearly every local college is launching new degree and certificate programs this fall.

“Higher education has definitely increased its understanding of workforce needs in recent years to help address current and future workforce demand,” said Sean Creighton, executive director of Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education.

Clark State Community College in Springfield is offering a one-year certificate program and two-year associate degree this fall training diesel engine technicians. Edison Community College in Piqua has a new program for pharmacy technicians. Cedarville University for the first time is offering a professional pharmacy program. Just to name a few.

“Higher education institutions have to be evolving and changing their degree programs as fast and faster than the business community so they have the workforce they need in the future,” said Chris Kershner, vice president of public policy and economic development for the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce.

‘Job… more reliant on education’

Focusing on jobs is “critical,” especially in emerging industries, said Brett Visger, the state’s deputy chancellor of institutional collaboration.

“It used to be, for a long time, that you could get a great job without having gone to college,” Visger said. “We’re entering a period where all the information shows that getting a good job is reliant on more education and training.”

At the same time, students are becoming more consumer-savvy in choosing a credential that will set them apart as student loan debt exceeds $1 trillion.

Clark State student Cody Hall, 20, said he chose the new diesel technology program because he thought too many people were pursuing careers as auto mechanics. There are 13 people in his class held at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center in Clayton.

“I figured I’d take it a step further and do diesel mechanic, because not everybody is doing it. I was just looking online and there’s a lot of jobs,” the Miamisburg resident said.

“I would like to get an associate degree because I didn’t get a (high school) diploma, I got a GED,” said Hall, who said he is pursuing a degree to one day share the experience with his daughter, who is now 9 months old.

“It’d be cool to say I got one when she is in college, and say, ‘I got one, you can too,’” he said.

The college expects the program will help students land jobs in the area, possibly before they even graduate. Hall’s instructor, Chad Violet, hopes to train students who will have the skills to work on vehicles at the business he owns, Venture Trucking in Springfield.

“I want good, quality, knowledgeable technicians that I now that I can trust with my business, my equipment in their hands,” Violet said.

‘A need they can’t fill’

About 130 area businesspeople serve on Clark State’s advisory panels to assist designing academic programs.

“If we’re training for an area that there’s no job at the end, that is not a good thing,” said President Karen Rafinski. “That is why we’re pulling these business and industry partners around the table.”

Fifty-seven percent of new jobs in Ohio will require a college degree by 2018, but less than 36 percent of the state’s 6.1 million working-age adults currently have at least a two-year degree, according to the Lumina Foundation, a nonprofit committed to increasing college enrollment.

As the area has lost many of its large manufacturing companies that provided their own training and apprenticeships, colleges have stepped in to meet workforce demands, said Deb Norris, Sinclair Community College’s vice president of workforce development and corporate services.

Norris said Sinclair asks clusters of employers where they are having trouble finding qualified workers and creates training programs in those areas, which are usually around manufacturing, logistics and emerging markets, such as intelligence.

“It usually starts when somebody’s having a need that they can’t fill,” she said. “If we’re not aligned with the employers and the jobs they have the skills they need, then why does it matter? It’s paramount to what we do.”

This fall, Sinclair plans to launch a training program on Java development, which Norris said is increasingly important as mobile apps become more essential to businesses. To make the program available as quickly as possible, it will initially be for no college credit, Norris said.

“We’re in this information economy and the rate of change is just much, much greater, so we have to try to continue to change and evolve. We have new technologies every day,” she said.

Clark State is sharing courses with Rhodes State College in Lima to begin offering degrees in radiographic imaging technology, respiratory care practitioner and occupational therapist assistant, Rafinski said. The fields are expected to grow faster than average, with the need for occupation therapy aids jumping 41 percent from 2010 to 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Students will complete their general education requirements at Clark State, take online courses and travel periodically to Lima for testing and laboratory work. The partnership benefits the college because the programs are expensive to set up and students because they do much of their coursework locally, Rafinski said.

Approval is a process

Launching a new degree is a years-long process at times, requiring backing from faculty, approval from the school’s board of trustees, a review by an accrediting agency and a vetting process by the Ohio Board of Regents, which coordinates public higher education.

Miami University’s regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown hope to speed the process of creating new degrees when they come under their own academic division in the future.

The regionals recently received approval of a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the Ohio Board of Regents. Miami already offers an associate degree in the field.

“One of the things we’re trying to focus on in developing new degree programs is to focus on where we think careers currently are and where careers will be developing… in the regional economy,” said Dean Michael Pratt.

Wright State University is awaiting approval for a cyber security master’s degree. WSU would be the only school in Ohio to offer the advanced degree. It would add to the associate degree and certificates in cyber security already available at the University of Dayton and Clark State.

“The U.S. government has made it a priority to increase the size and capability of the cyber security workforce. The need for well-trained cyber security professionals seems to be ever increasing. Our country, our intellectual assets and economic well-being are at stake,” said Dan Heighton, founding professor of the program at Clark State. The college is expanding it to the Beavercreek campus this fall.

Along with an increased focus on jobs skills, colleges are offering a broad education to students. Cedarville University this fall launches a bachelor’s degree of arts in liberal arts.

“That really concentrates on some of the key skills employers are looking for” including critical thinking and writing, said Tom Cornman, academic vice president and chief academic officer.

Unemployed and underemployed

Students entering the labor market face hurdles and a backlog of unemployed graduates. Thirty-five percent of recent graduates said their first job was not related to their degree, according to the “Chasing the American Dream” report from Rutgers University.

Twelve percent of graduates were either unemployed or underemployed a year after graduation, according to the report.

In Ohio, if the college completion rate remains stable, by 2025, there will be 61,000 fewer people in the workforce with a college credential, Visger said. The Ohio Board of Regents recently launched an effort to improve the college graduation rate.

“What we’re trying to focus on is how we can get out institutions helping more people cross the finish line with credentials that will help them get good jobs,” Visger said.