The following article was prepared by the Tennessee State Chamber. I thought you would find it interesting.
Tennessee to Place ‘Warranty’ on its Community and Technical College Training
If a Tennessee employer doesn’t feel a recent community or technical college graduate’s skills are up to snuff, the state will retrain them for free. That’s the promise Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Flora Tydings said the state is making after the fall graduating class of next year. Tydings unveiled the “warranty” for its technical programs Tuesday November 7 during Governor Bill Haslam’s annual budget hearings.
“If, within a year, any graduate that is employed comes forth with an employer and says they don’t have the skill set for which we have trained them, we will take them back and retrain them for free,” Tydings said to Haslam during the hearing. Haslam responded: “I love the warranty idea, that’s awesome. That’s accountability at its finest.” With the warranty program, Tydings said employers don’t often find graduate’s skills lacking after attending the state’s technical programs.
“That’s why I am standing behind our students,” she said. “And if it does come up, we realize we have an issue
with a program and we need to change what we are doing.” The announcement by Tydings was one of many made during the budget hearing focused on higher education in the state. The annual exercise brings various state departments together to discuss wishlists and cuts.
During the hearing, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission also announced a tuition rate hike for the
2018-19 year between 0 and 3 percent. That’s an amount officials said was driven by a desire to keep college prices
more affordable.