Print this story | E-mail story | This story has 12 comments Add your own | iPod friendly
Grads feel misled by MSCTC program
Published Thursday, May 8, 2008
Dalton native Andrew Digre had spent years working retail and living in the Twin Cities when he decided to return to lakes country.
It was 2006 and Digre, now 32, had heard of a program called Computer and Network Technology — System Administration Emphasis, offered for the first time that September at MSCTC-Fergus Falls.
“It’s always been something I wanted to do,” Digre said of IT work, “but to get into it you have to prove you have the qualifications and the necessary skills and that’s what I didn’t.”
That was two years ago, and now Digre and eight other students are graduating. Yet some say they’re disappointed to learn the local jobs they believed would be available upon graduation simply don’t exist.
Nick Stolpman is a Fergus Falls native who lived in St. Cloud and Chisholm before returning to town for the college’s new courses. For Stolpman, part of the program’s appeal was the prospect of a job with Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), the Fortune 500 IT and business process outsourcing company with an office in Fergus Falls.
According to Stolpman, many students entered the program based on job prospects with ACS, which partnered with MSCTC in creating the system administration emphasis in Fergus Falls. Stolpman said he recalls hearing about entry-level ACS jobs offering approximately $35,000 annually.
“It seems to me there was a lot of talk of there being a lot of jobs,” Stolpman said. “I don’t see that happening.”
Staff with ACS confirm there are currently no local entry-level positions available but say those jobs were never guaranteed.
“We were very careful not to model the program specifically off of what ACS does,” said Jim Boyce, senior practice and process manager.
“It’s a matter of timing. We need to have positions open, they need to have the graduates. We’ve never portrayed it as ‘graduate from the program and get a job at ACS.’”
Dave Pickens, who’s led the program the past two years, echoed similar sentiments.
“I’ve told the students from day one we’re training you for opportunities not only in Fergus Falls but wherever (you) go,” he said. “They were also told from the beginning that they weren’t guaranteed a job at ACS.”
The company has been a partner in the program but not its sole beneficiary, Pickens said. An advisory board of several regional businesses has helped guide the program’s curriculum.
“In reality, it’s not an ACS program, it doesn’t belong to them,” Pickens said. “It’s in cooperation with employers in the region.”
The college program prepares students for certification as Microsoft certified systems administrators, Pickens said, and gives them the basic skills for a number of IT jobs.
And those jobs are increasingly in demand. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development predicts the state’s need for network systems and data communications analysts will grow by roughly 51 percent by 2016. The 2007 median annual salary for one of these positions? Over $75,000.
Yet students can’t expect to find these kinds of jobs in Fergus Falls right out of school, said Pickens, who spent years working for the local Minnesota WorkForce office. In Fergus Falls, he said, recent students can expect to compete against more experienced workers for fewer jobs.
“I’ve been telling them they need to be able to go where the jobs are,” Pickens said. “In order to compete for jobs in this community, you need to build up your experience elsewhere.”
So that’s what students are doing. Both Digre and Stolpman started jobs with Volt Information Sciences in Fargo this week. Late last month, Stolpman said he was pleased with his MSCTC experience — just frustrated the local job outlook didn’t pan out as expected.
“The classes are great,” he said. “I think the education we’re getting is a very valuable education.”
Yet the system administration emphasis won’t be available in Fergus Falls much longer: The program will close next year due to low enrollment, Pickens said.
MSCTC President Ann Valentine said the arrival of ACS in Fergus Falls in spring 2006 may have helped fuel enrollment initially.
Those numbers have since changed.
“It’s just through an unfortunate set of circumstances that we’ve come to this decision,” she said.
The handful of students with credits remaining will have the option of enrolling in the core Computer and Network Technology program out of Wadena, Moorhead or online.
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by 1125thmp (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 3:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Didn't ACS recieve some significant JOB Zone State tax breaks and city incentives to relocate here? I never could get an answer ever from the school or ACS as to what exactly was the arrangement in regards to each complimenting one another. Glad I never took the program. I look forward to taking the time now to look over past news regarding this to see what appears to be a gigantic con job on the part of ACS.
Posted by olson736 (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 5:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
ACS never conned anybody. The college program was fined tuned to include some additional Microsoft classes which better prepared the graduates for the job market. If the students went on and received their Microsoft certification it shows their level of competency to the future employer. The same as being a licensed electrician you are judged by your certification.
I don't know of to many graduates that are guaranteed a job the day they graduate. Given the state of the economy all graduates may find it a little more difficult to find that perfect job. This does not mean ACS is never going to hire any graduates or Otter Tail Power, Arvig Communication, Park Region Telephone, or any other employer today. The graduates received a good education at MSCTC and there will be job opportunities. At no time was this program a employer based program and I suspect nobody will say anything when they do in fact offer jobs to recent graduates. Lets see that article in the paper.
Posted by ginger_ale1 (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 6:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Those students have a right to be frustrated. At the time if its inception, the general assumption was that these students would have jobs waiting for them.
Posted by chrreed (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 7:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If one looks at the Journal article from Sept. of 2006 concerning ACS and MSCTC, president Valentine said at that time that talks were happening between the college and ACS about training students to work for them. Seems as if President Valentine made it sound like these students would have the possibility of employment with ACS when they earned their degrees.
Posted by TKay (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 7:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I read 9/2006 article and it specifically says in there that "ACS hopes to hire FFCTC graduates but is under no obligation to do do".
Here is the link:
http://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/2...
Posted by ginger_ale1 (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 9:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
And you believe everything you read in the journal? These students were led to believe that they would have a pretty good chance of landing a job with ACS. While they may have not stated it in the article, it WAS an assumption that could have easily been made by anyone who was involved in the process.
Posted by TKay (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 10:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Tough life lesson learned then for these students but would anticipate that their IT skills and training opens up career options that they did not have before they went to school. Life rarely seems to go as we plan.
Good luck to the graduates!
Posted by 1125thmp (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 11:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Also the earlier articles point out that to recieve the incentives for moving here, ACS has to hire some locally. I'm sure speak to most of the students to who took the 'ACS' courses and you will certainly get the impression that a significant percentage were under the auspices of just such an issue. I find it interesting now that the Journal immediatly props up the comments heading when anything remotely seems to engender a spirit of non conformity over an issue. Oh well. ACS or sorry area computer admin course cancelled, nursing program earlier, a what was it $35k trainer for a police program that is no axed.
Posted by nistol (anonymous) on May 9, 2008 at 7:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The title of this article is misleading. As far as the program goes, we (the majority of the students) feel that this was a very positive experience. The community as a whole was mislead. Two years ago the Daily Journal published article after article talking about how ACS was going to have a relationship with MSCTC to "...offer new IT classes geared toward training new ACS employees" (Originally published 09:21 a.m., September 30, 2006). In regards to the JOBZ commitment with the city, in an article dated Aug. 9, 2006 the DJ printed "In return, the company agrees to provide a certain number of jobs within the community. “They told us they would employ a minimum of 50 people,” said Stanislawski. “But I think it will be more than that.”" Where is ACS now with that benchmark? Why was that not reported in the article? This is what the article should have been about.
Nick Stolpman
Posted by olson736 (anonymous) on May 9, 2008 at 9:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
How about everybody taking a deep breath and let the graduates type up their resumes and go ask for a job.
To date I would be willing to bet they have not applied anywhere for work like a normal person would do.
Polish up the resume, put on your best clothes and go find out if there are openings today. If there aren't openings immediately that certainly does not mean there won't be one next week or next month. Business's hire when they need help, not just when somebody says "Hey, I'm out of school now, call me"
Posted by FergusFamily (anonymous) on May 9, 2008 at 9:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The "Guidelines for Blogging" pop up now on all stories - even the weather. It's a great reminder - and if we can't be more respectful of others, this privilege might go away altogether.
Posted by nistol (anonymous) on May 9, 2008 at 3:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
olson736.. Did you even read the article? Andrew Digre and I (who haven't even graduated yet) have accepted positions with Volt Technologies as Microsoft SharePoint Support Engineers! I had personally sent out numerous resumes and been to a hand full of interviews before accepting this position. None of the graduates are lazy. We never expected to be handed a job by ACS. We did expect that ACS would honor its commitment to the community and the JOBz program.
Nick Stolpman
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)