Future Workers Need College Training, Study Says Report Will Help Guide Course Offerings At Spokane Institutions Of Higher Education

Up to half of all future employees in Spokane County will need some college education, a new report says.

But they may be joining an economy that suffers from low wages, high poverty rates and a higher than average cost of living.

This “presents a challenge to the many workers in the Spokane area with quite low earnings,” the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board wrote in a preliminary assessment of the economy and education.

Released Thursday, the 38-page report was ordered by Gov. Gary Locke and the Legislature to guide this year’s sifting of classes offered downtown by Eastern Washington University, Washington State University and others.

A final report will be issued Oct. 1.

Paul Sommers, director of the Northwest Policy Center at the University of Washington, was a contributor to the report. He compared various forecasts of Spokane’s economy through the year 2005, concluding that:

Health care will be the county’s fastest-growing industry.

Other service industries will grow faster than the rest of the economy.

Basic manufacturing will lag behind, though high-technology development and research could surge ahead.

Government will grow slowly.

The findings shed light on the educational needs of the future work force - and who should provide them.

The growth in health care is more likely to boost the fortunes of the Community Colleges of Spokane than the four-year schools, the report said. The community colleges offer technical programs that lead to two-year degrees in health professions.

The quality of community college training may be “as critical to a region’s future as the production of four-year and graduate degrees,” the report said. However, total demand for employees with four-year degrees in the county will be larger than those with community college degrees.

From one-third to nearly half of all future job openings in Spokane will require some college education, the report said. That’s similar to the rest of the state, according to projections by Employment Security, though lower than the 54 percent expected in Seattle and King County.