Back at the very beginning of our blog, we mentioned how two-year college can be a great way to circumvent student debt.

We’re fans of education here at Manufacturing Nebraska, but we also want people to know that four-year degrees and student debt aren’t the only way to a successful, well-paying career.

Today, then, we’re here to give you a great example of one such college right here in Nebraska: .

Southeast Community College is a great school–not just locally, but nationally as well. Here are a few stats on :

• SCC ranked No. 1 in the number of Precision Production graduates in the United States for eight consecutive years (2004-2011).
• For the second consecutive year SCC was ranked among the top 10 percent of the 1,200 community colleges in the U.S. by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. The Institute identified the 120 community colleges using a quantitative formula that assesses performance and improvement in four areas: graduation rates, degrees awarded, student retention rates, and equity in student outcomes.
• Ninety-four percent of the 1,771 SCC students who graduated during the 2011-2012 academic year found work or continued their education.
• Ninety-one percent of the 1,224 SCC graduates who found work in careers during the 2011-2012 academic year remained in Nebraska.
• The pass rate for graduates of 14 SCC programs who have access to licensure and/or certification exams was 95 percent during the 2009-2012 academic year, the latest figures available. This affirms that SCC students are well-prepared to take the national/organizational licensure and certification exams.

So we’re not just talking about a small-time community college–we’re talking about a nationally-ranked, extremely successful Midwestern school.

Southeast Community College offers in manufacturing subjects, including (but certainly not limited to) some of the following:

• Auto Collision Repair Technology
• Diesel-Ag Equipment Service Technology
• Precision Machining and Automation Technology
• Nondestructive Testing Technology
• Welding Technology

And as you may have read in the statistics we first listed, students graduating with these degrees aren’t just graduating with knowledge–they’re graduating with the actual technical skills needed for licensure and certification exams in their fields of study.

You can see pages upon pages of real-world success stories in Southeast Community College’s , detailing the types of work that graduates are doing, how they like their jobs, and even the types of salaries they’re making. The guide is an excellent resource and an excellent demonstration of the type of work you could expect upon graduating from the school.

SCC’s excellence shows in their equipment, too. Students don’t just learn from lectures–they learn from hands-on experience with some of the best technical equipment and machinery around. You can be sure that you’ll be great at what you’re studying by the time you graduate.

If it sounds like we’re huge fans of the college, it’s because we are. They’ve been teaching students real-world skills for some time now, and are an excellent example of the types of educators we want to see helping to close the skills gap we talk about so frequently.

For more information, we definitely recommend checking out Southeast Community College’s . They have a ton of great information on enrollment, scholarships, and the degrees they offer. We’re glad to have SCC here in Nebraska, and know that they’ll continue serving as a great resource for students here in the Midwest.

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Photo credit Southeast Community College