It isn't only cars, appliances and houses selling in the classified ads these days. It's also education.
Salt Lake Community College is running classified advertisements, and a few small display ads, in area newspapers in hopes of attracting more students to welding, automotive and machinist programs.President O.D. Carnahan told the school's Institutional Council Wednesday that the ad campaign is seen as a way to inform students about available slots in the vocational-education programs that can lead to jobs.
In the last few years, especially since the school became a comprehensive community college that offers general education courses, the vocational education classes haven't increased as rapidly, he said.
Some have viewed that experience as a college de-emphasis on vocational education. That isn't true, Carnahan said. A sluggish economy, especially in construction-trades industry, has discouraged students from enrolling in vocational education programs.
But that is changing, and there are now employers looking for trained workers in the welding, automotive and machinist fields, Carnahan said. He said the ads are designed to inform prospective students of that fact.
The State Board of Regents has a policy prohibiting advertising if it would put an institution in competition with another college. Carnahan said that policy doesn't apply to this advertising campaign.