Utah's legislators and employers ought to build on the success of Utah Valley State College as it morphs into a university. Like many of the state's community colleges, its success has been in its ability to adjust to the demands of a dynamic global economy that requires higher skilled workers who can produce products in a timely and customized way. It's been able to respond to the educational/training needs of a young and mushrooming population that is eager to learn and make it in today's high-performance workplace with good-paying jobs. Like other community colleges, it is flexible and thus able to respond to current market forces — meet student educational/training needs and deliver a timely and quality workforce employers need in order to compete in today's global economy.

The initial purpose of UVSC should not be lost because it is more critical than ever before. Utah employers now have to compete in an economy that has to deliver not only quality and a variety of products, but customized and convenient ones, as well; if not, other nations are quick to take over. The transforming of UVSC to a university allows the Legislature to restructure the state's education/training system so it can integrate the skills, education and training functions into a coherent system that will allow it to meet the needs of students as they strive to enter the workplace or move on to higher learning.

As our leaders try to meet the growing educational needs of our students — both youth and adult — in a most cost-efficient way, they would do well to revisit the legislation establishing the Utah College of Applied Technology in 2001, consisting of nine regional centers to provide Career Training Education. The legislation bundled the training centers as a separate college because some felt the system was given little attention as part of higher education. That was six years ago; but in today's rapidly changing economy, it was light years ago. Higher education officials now realize how important it is to provide the educational options students seek in today's ever-changing world.

That six-year span of UCAT, in many instances, duplicated CTE classes with those offered by the community colleges. Two community colleges, Salt Lake Community College and UVSC, together provided five times more CTE credit hours, at a lower cost while using fewer tax dollars, than did UCAT. Furthermore, not only is there needless duplication of CTE provided by UCAT and the community colleges, but needless duplication of administrative costs.

UVSC's change to university status must not diminish its success in providing career training, rather it should allow for a smoother integration of career training and/or higher education options for people in the surrounding growing communities. The transition also provides the opportunity to fold the UCAT system, including its nine centers, into the closest community college in the area. This would be a saving in administrative costs, eliminate duplication of class offerings and focus resources in strengthening the capacity of the community colleges to provide timely and prepared workers for Utah's employers. It would provide a central point where employers can collaborate with community colleges in delivering the quality workforce they need to compete while providing good paying jobs for our students.