With all the talk about recession nowadays, it seems many students are turning to technical based degrees.

There will be a always need for people with technical skills so these people with vocational skills generally don’t have to worry about finding a job.

The need for these people with technical skills will never go away.

People are always going to need auto mechanics, welders and electricians.

EC currently has a superb program, with courses ranging from refrigeration and air conditioning to plumbing.

A student can have a career, if students opt to take day classes, within a year and a half of first attending class.

They don’t have to wait two years to get an A.A. or four years if they want to get a bachelor’s degree.

According to Vic Cafarchia, refrigeration and air conditioning professor, 98 percent of EC students are placed in jobs that pay up to $15 to $30 an hour.

This isn’t such a bad deal for a 20-something year old just starting off considering most people in their age group are stuck in minimum wage jobs.

Companies often call Cafarchia to recommend students who would be able to fill available positions.

Local companies like Northrop Grumman have hired former EC students with successful results.

Also, vocational certificates are a great alternative for those students who don’t know what to do with their lives.

Not everyone knows when they want to be when they enter college.

We’re not all blessed with knowing what we want to be by the age of five; and some of us don’t know what we’ll be until we’re well into adulthood.

Having a certificate in welding is a great thing to fall back on when the future looks hazy and you need to pay the bills.

Furthermore, as much as we would like for everyone to be a doctor, judge or teacher some people just aren’t cut out for that type of career.

Some students just don’t have the drive or the desire to have a blue-collar job and who can blame them?

Either they don’t want to spend four years in school or they just don’t have the mental capacity to take college classes.

Not everyone likes being stuffed up in an office and they want to have a job where they can work outdoors or with their hands.

In times like this, it’s great to have a technical degree to fall back on.

The economy is quite shaky and many people are unfortunately losing their jobs, but if one has a technical skills, the likelihood of losing one’s job is less.