As I was working on a story for our upcoming home improvement special section I happened to chat with a young woman only recently graduated from Northwest College. She was showing off how her associates degree in drafting was enabling her to hold a job at a Powell business designing kitchen and bath spaces in homes using virtual design software. 

My first thought is this is a homegrown education success story: She graduated from Cody High School, went to NWC and earned a degree she’s been able to quickly turn into a job right in Powell. 

It’s a well-timed revelation as the college will be holding an open house May 1 for its new Center for Training and Development at the armory, a space dedicated to the same goal, of taking high school graduates — mostly from the region — and molding them into future employees of companies in the region that need those skills. 

The center accomplishes those goals for non-degree seeking students alongside programs such as drafting, health care programs like nursing, and other programs that culminate in a two-year degree you can use immediately. 

While there is obviously a need for the programs that students can use to advance two years toward a four-year degree at a university, it’s exciting to see how well the college is able to directly impact the community by churning out students who have the skills necessary to go straight from NWC graduation or certificate completion into a career that can utilize those skills, and allow for more young people to stay in the area. 

As I see it, NWC is performing a vital service in helping Big Horn Basin communities avoid so much of the brain drain that Wyoming can experience, seeing so many of its high school graduates leave for larger areas.

We need young people to keep the economy going and provide the services we all use, whether we’re working or not, and we need families with kids to maintain a wonderful school system. But with the rising cost of housing, we need the kind of jobs that pay well enough to allow people to stay in our communities, and that often these days means more education than just a high school diploma.