August 22, 2010

Amid Budget Challenges, Colleges in South Atlantic States Focus on Completion and Job Skills

Billy Weeks for The Chronicle

Brooke Davis, a student at Tri-County Community College, in Murphy, N.C., works on a project for a welding class. The class will have approximately 70 students enrolled this fall.

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Billy Weeks for The Chronicle

Brooke Davis, a student at Tri-County Community College, in Murphy, N.C., works on a project for a welding class. The class will have approximately 70 students enrolled this fall.

By Eric Kelderman

The unemployment rate in North Carolina’s Cherokee County has been more than 10 percent since October 2008, well above the national average, and was nearly 17 percent early in 2010. Nearly 18 percent of individuals live below the poverty line in the county, which is nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains, not far from Georgia and Tennessee.

Even though there are few jobs in the area, enrollment in the welding program at Tri-County Community College, in nearby Murphy, is booming,