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Southwest Community College presents enrollment, dual-enrollment and continuing-education figures for Swain County
Summary
Representatives from Southwest Community College briefed the Swain County Board of Commissioners on March about local enrollment, continuing-education participation at the Almond Center, and dual-enrollment rates for area high school students.
Representatives from Southwest Community College told the Swain County Board of Commissioners at its March work session that the college serves more than 1,100 Swain County residents and that continuing-education and dual-enrollment programs provide regular educational opportunities in the county.
At the presentation, Dr. Thomas, speaking for Southwest Community College, said the college’s service area includes Macon, Jackson and Swain counties and that 1,102 residents from Swain County were enrolled at the college across credit and continuing-education programs. Andrea Stanford, identified in the meeting as “director of institutional effectiveness and research,” joined the presentation to review enrollment charts and program breakdowns.
Stanford walked commissioners through continuing-education participation at the Almond Center, listing program areas such as basic skills (GED), EMS and fire-and-rescue training, heritage arts (pottery), photography and personal-enrichment short courses. She said fall 2024 continuing-education head counts for Swain County showed roughly 303 course enrollments in one column and a duplicated grand total of 487 continuing-education enrollments for the reporting period, with the caveat that individual students may be enrolled in multiple short courses.
The presenters noted dual-enrollment participation among high-school students: about 27% of Swain County students were taking dual-enrollment courses, compared with roughly 29% in Macon County and 19% in Jackson County, figures the presenters used to illustrate local uptake of the Career and College Promise program. Stanford said the college reported 2,265 course opportunities across terms (with an unduplicated student total of 993 over the multi-year span tracked in the packet) and highlighted nursing as one of the larger curriculum programs, listing 106 unduplicated nursing enrollments in the multi-year table she reviewed.
Stanford also explained program logistics: residents can take GED coursework at the Almond Center but must travel offsite to a county testing center to sit for the official high-school-equivalency exam; students also access curriculum classes online or on other SCC campuses when appropriate. She named instructor Jeff Marley as a principal organizer for many of the heritage-arts and personal-enrichment offerings and said she would provide commissioners a more detailed list of short-term, instructor-led classes upon request.
Why it matters: commissioners asked for the briefing to better understand the college’s local footprint, how high-school students are being served by dual-enrollment and career-training partnerships with Swain County Schools, and the local availability of adult education and licensure courses. The report provides numbers commissioners can use when discussing local workforce development, school partnerships and community training options.
The presenters fielded questions about classroom use and space at the Almond Center and said they would follow up with more room-level detail and a fuller list of continuing-education offerings.
Sources: Remarks and charts presented by Dr. Thomas and Andrea Stanford during the Swain County Board of Commissioners work session, March.
