a transfer-friendly school

Profile of Curriculum Programs at Wayne Community College: 

• Wayne Community College offers 49 certificate programs which are less than 1-year in length, 14 diploma programs which are more than 1-year but less than 2-years in length, and 34 degree programs which are 2-years in length.  This reflects the expansion and diversification of vocational-technical offerings since the mid-20th century (Levin & Kater, 2013).
• The school partners with Pitt Community College in the fields of Biotechnology and Healthcare Management Technology. 
• Wayne Community College partners with East Carolina University's College of Education regarding teaching.
• The programs of Elementary Education and Teaching and Cosmetology/Cosmetologist, General are currently not accepting new students.  I expect this to be due to saturation in these job sectors.
• Some of the school's unique programs include:
• Turf and Turfgrass Management
• Airframe Mechanics and Aircraft Maintenance Technology/Technician
• Forest Technology/Technician

I expect this to be due to the close proximity of turf farms in the region, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base which is also in Goldsboro, and the role of tourism and national forests in the state.

• Wayne Community College offers the following college transfer programs:  Associates in Arts, Associates in Science, and Associates in Engineering.
• Of the five most popular fields of study at Wayne College identified by StateUniversity.com, liberal arts and sciences was overwhelmingly the most popular:

• The other top contenders, for most popular fields of study at Wayne Community College, make sense from the local economic perspective, as they align with two of the top three sectors of area employment.  AccessNC identified the top three sectors of Wayne County's employment as: 
1. Health care and social assistance
2. Retail trade
3. Manufacturing
• Wayne Community College's most popular study fields of Welding Technology/Welder and Machine Shop Technology/Assistant address these employment needs.  Their Medical Office Management/Administration and Registered Nursing/Registered Nurse fields address the identified employment needs of health care.  These are examples of geography affecting opportunity (Olivas, 2005).

• In viewing all of Wayne Community College's curriculum program completion disaggregated by program and race, the following observations can be made: 
• Both Black and White students are enrolled in a wide variety of programs
• Liberal arts transfer programs are most popular for all races, even being off-the-chart for White students
• Black students completed Welding Technology/Welder at the same rate as they completed Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Top programs overall, after Liberal Arts and Sciences, were:
1. Machine Shop Technology/Assistant
2. Electromechanical and Instrumentation and Maintenance Technologies/Technicians
3. Mechanical Engineering/Mechanical Technology/Technician
• The popularity of the liberal arts transfer programs at Wayne Community College are in-line with the evidence of Cohen, Brawer, and Kisker (2014) who wrote "In 2010, 40 percent of all students beginning postsecondary education enrolled first in a two-year college" (p. 53).

 

• According to CollegeTransfer.net, in 2013, Wayne Community College had 1,028 transfer students yielding a transfer-in rate of 27%.  I expect this to reflect a variety of reasons students change schools such as cost, programs, difficulty, work and family responsibilities, and flexibility or inflexibility of the job market.  Additionally, I expect the reverse-transfer (Cohen, Brawer, & Kisker, 2014) of student who already have a degree and are retraining for new or different work.
• According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 2014, Wayne Community College's transfer-out rate was 17%.  For this same year, US News reported the national transfer-out rate at 18%.  I expect this to also reflect a variety of reasons such as relocating or feeling proficient enough to gain employment in the field.  I think the transfer-out rate is much lower than the transfer-in rate, as there are not too many more lower-cost institutions with a variety of program offerings available if transferring elsewhere.  Levin and Kater (2013) describe community colleges as "the lowest-priced postsecondary option available" (p. 25). 
• NCCommunityColleges identified the top three institutions to which Wayne Community College students transfer as: 
1. East Carolina University (ECU)
2. North Carolina (NC) State
3. University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW)
• Wayne Community College partners with the University of Mount Olive to enhance college transfer.

• Wayne Community College partners with Allen Aircraft Radio (AAR) Mobility Systems, a global aerospace and defense company, to provide a customized 8-week welding certificate program for AAR employees, accelerating their welding careers.  This program addresses a shortage of welders at AAR Mobility Systems, and students who complete the course can test for their welding certificate, immediately increasing their salaries by as much as $4.50 per hour.
• Non-AAR employees can also take this fast-track welding curriculum through Wayne Community College’s adult continuing education initiatives.  The partnership of AAR, local industries, and the college has resulted in the development of an Introduction to Manufacturing course designed to prepare students for manufacturing careers while building a pipeline of talent.  The curriculum includes:
• Training in soft skills, also called people skills
• Preparation for testing for the North Carolina Career Readiness Certification (CRC)
• Wayne Community College resources to assist with the transfer process include:
• Webpage with helpful links, including the North Carolina Comprehensive Articulation Agreement:  http://www.waynecc.edu/college-transfer/
• College Transfer Advising Center       

Monday – Wednesday – 7:45 AM. to 5:30 PM

Thursday – 9:15 AM to 7:00 PM

Friday – 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM

• Online new student orientation, for those transferring in
• Career and College Promise for High School students to transition-in by taking some courses at Wayne Community College while still in High School:  http://www.waynecc.edu/career-and-college-promise/  This assists with shaping college-going aspirations during high school (Levin & Kater, 2013).

References:

Access North Carolina.  (2016).  [website].  Retrieved from: 

http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37191.pdf

Cohen, A. M., Brawer, F. B., & Kisker, C. B.  (2014).  The American community college.  San Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass.

College Transfer.  (2016).  [website].  Retrieved from: 

https://www.collegetransfer.net/WayneCommunityCollege/TransferProfile/tabid/145/Default.aspx?radius=25&instName=Wayne community college

Levin, J. S., & Kater, S. T.  (Eds.).  (2013).  Understanding community colleges.  New York, NY:  Routlege.     

National Center for Education Statistics.  (2016).  CollegeNavigator:  Wayne Community College [data file].  Retrieved from: 

http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=wayne+commnuity+college&s=all&id=199892

North Carolina Community Colleges.  (2016).  Statistical reports:  Curriculum student enrollment [data file].  Retrieved from:  http://www.nccommunitycolleges.edu/analytics/statistical-reports

Olivas, M. A.  (2005).  Higher education as ‘place’:  Location, race, and college attendance policies.  Review of Higher Education, 28(2), 169-189.

State University.  (2016).  [website].  Retrieved from:  http://www.stateuniversity.com/universities/NC/Wayne_Community_College.html

Wayne Community College.  (2016).  [website].  Retrieved from:  http://www.waynecc.edu/