The Baldwin County School Board unanimously approved a dual-enrollment agreement at Thursday meeting with Faulkner State Community College to promote work force development in Baldwin County  at no cost to eligible students.

“We do not have to charge the students a fee like in other dual-enrollment programs,” Patty Hughston, Instructional Support Secondary Supervisor said. “They do not have to pay tuition or buy textbooks.”

Hughston, who handled the Board of Education end of the agreement, said there was no cost to the Board of Education either.

“There will be an equal exchange of funding between Faulkner State Community College and the Baldwin County Board of Education,” Hughston said. “Tuition will be paid on the Faulkner end, and instructional support and facility fees will be paid on the other.”

Hughston said the exchange and documentation was needed to maintain the Southern Association of Colleges and  Schools accreditation for Faulkner.

“Most students should be eligible for the program,” Hughston said.

Eligibility figures have not yet been gathered, because the agreement

Hughston said eligible students currently enrolled at the North Baldwin Center for Technology and South Baldwin Center for Technology would be grandfathered into the program because they are in the classes at the time of the agreement.

According to the agreement presented to the Board of Education at their work session Monday and approved Thursday, eligible students could earn college credits at zero cost, have the potential to earn a FSCC training certification upon high school graduation, have the opportunity to continue their program of study at FSCC to earn an associate’s degree in one year and  potentially transfer their credits to universities.

The agreement stipulates that eligibility is extended to sophomores, juniors and seniors at enrolled at NBCT or SBCT eligible classes or those granted an exception by the College upon the recommendation of the student’s principal and superintendent. Students must have written approval of the appropriate principal and the local superintendent of education and meet FSCC entrance requirements.

Bradley Byrne, chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system, said one of the first things he found out after taking his position was that Alabama two-year colleges needed to grow their technology-education programs throughout the state.

“ We need to do it particularly by partnering with our friends in K-12, because you have assets and we have assets. You have highly-trained instructors, and we have highly-trained instructors,” Bryne said. “Merging our resources will allow us to do better by the people we represent.” 

Bryne said that in talks with site selectors, he has learned of growing concerns among business and industrial people both nationally and internationally that the next generation of technical workers is not being grown.

“By pooling our resources and working in this dual-enrollment agreement, we believe it will put Alabama on the cutting edge and make the state more competitive economically.”

Byrne said his office has given nearly $2 million from their Work force Development funds in the next fiscal year to training the next generation.

“These are great paying job and looking at the wage scales business and industry are paying young people that finish in these technical programs, I wonder why I went out to get a four-year college degree,” Bryne said. “There is a real demand. The economy values people with technical skills.”

Pam Henson,  director of instructional support, said FSCC and the school system  have been working on the agreement for around three months.