Whether a high school student is pursuing the college prep track or technical track, education is the key to a better job and a brighter future.

Nationally, of last year’s freshmen, 28 percent will enter a four-year college; however, only 20 percent of the available jobs will require a four-year degree, according to figures provided by Frank Mann, assistant superintendent of Wyoming County Schools.

“Everything over the 20 percent is overflow, that’s an 8 percent overflow,” Mann explained.

Of the same group of students, 32 percent will pursue an associate, or two-year, degree program, or advanced skills or technical training after high school. A whopping 65 percent of the available jobs nationwide will require the associate degree or advanced technical skills training.

Statistics show that’s where the jobs currently lie — in those advanced skilled technical jobs — tradesmen who can repair cars, do welding, electrical work, plumbing, carpentry, masonry, work in the mines, among other specialized craftsmen.

In this area, the craftsmen who perform these types of jobs are nearing or passed retirement age, Mann said.

The largest student enrollment population in today’s community colleges are those with four-year professional degrees returning to obtain the skills necessary for these types of specialized skilled jobs, he said.

“We need doctors, of course,” Mann said, “but we don’t need 9,000 doctors here... Everything over what is needed is flooding the (job) market.”

It is this group of students who will attend the Wyoming County Career and Technical Center, Mann said.

The center also offers a head start in many shops for those in pursuit of a two-year degree, Mann noted.

As many as one-half to two-thirds of the career center’s students could be only one year away from that associate degree when he/she graduates high school, he explained.

Additionally, students working toward a four-year, or bachelor’s degree, can get a leg up in high school as well, Mann noted, and be within two or three years of completing the four-year college program upon their graduation from high school.

“There are so many opportunities for students here at the career center,” Mann emphasized.

He cited as an example the available jobs at the new federal prison, now under construction in McDowell County, just across the Wyoming County line. With consistent overtime, some of those employed at the prison could earn nearly $100,000 annually, according to officials.

“An associate degree will make such a difference in the available job opportunities,” Mann said.

As for the remaining segment of last year’s freshmen, 30 percent nationwide will drop out before completing high school. Only 15 percent of all available jobs nationally require minimum skills for employment. As a result, there will be twice as many unskilled people seeking the available jobs that do not require a high school diploma.

Education is the key, Mann emphasized.

“We are doing everything we can to provide students with a 21st century education,” noted Frank Blackwell, county schools superintendent.

“We are trying to prepare them to deal with thing’s in tomorrow’s society. And, more and more, the jobs seem to lie in the skilled trades.”