By Miguel Barragan
The California Online Community College deserves support because it would help Californians get training for jobs.
California Online Community College would offer online classes to students interested in receiving education online.
The community college would be the first of its kind in the state.
The school differs from the online class system currently in place, where students may attend a California Community College and take online classes counted toward a degree, because this school is exclusively online.
Existing online programs offer traditional community college students a hybrid system of on-campus classes and online components.
California Online Community College, however, is for those that can’t make it to community college for time issues, travel issues, monetary issues and social issues or a combination of these.
Governor Jerry Brown said in his final State of the State address, “Even with so many of our students attending college, there are still 2.5 million Californians between 25 and 34 who are in the workforce but lack a post-secondary degree or certificate.”
This is the demographic the online college will be targeting.
It’s good they are trying to help these Californians because many of them want higher education and training but don’t have the time, money or means to go to school.
Officials say their goal is for students to complete their credentials within a year. The college announced short-term credentials for medical coding, supervisor roles and Information Technology.
Medical coders translate medical services, done by healthcare providers, into codes for billing purposes. It is a middle-skill profession that could potentially pay more than $50,000 a year.
According to Glassdoor’s website, medical coders that work for Blue Shield make an estimated $80,000 a year.
Medical coding is a job that’s in high demand considering the state needs an estimated 1,600 medical coders annually through 2024.
According to Edsource, the training for full-time medical coding students is estimated to take four to eight months, while it would take 18 months for part-time students.
Walmart and its foundation donated nearly $2.4 million in funding for the development of courses to train retail workers to become supervisors.
This would be good for Walmart workers that want to get ahead.
Advancing in careers is important, because workers don’t want to get stuck in a job that doesn’t pay enough.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley, California Community Colleges System chancellor, said on the California Community Colleges website, “The 115th online college will help increase social mobility for California’s working adults seeking higher wages within a rapidly changing economy.”
The college will be funded $240 million over a span of seven years.
To fund the ongoing cost of maintaining the college, $20 million will be spent annually. The college is expected to start enrolling students in the fall of 2019.