New website links prospective students with middle-skill jobs

SAN DIEGO - A website launched by community colleges in San Diego and Imperial counties is designed to allow students to more easily explore local middle-skill educational and job opportunities.

Middle-skill jobs require more education than high school but less than a four-year degree. The website highlights the region's nine fastest-growing industry sectors: advanced manufacturing; advanced transportation and logistics; global trade; energy, construction and utilities; health; information and communication technologies; life sciences and biotechnology; business; and agriculture, water, and environmental technologies.

The website, careered.org, lists local job openings and their prerequisite programs at the region's 10 community colleges. Students can also enroll in classes.

"Good-paying, middle-skill job openings will only continue to grow in our region, and Career Education offers specific training and employer connections that will help students get these jobs,'' said Danene Brown, chair of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Workforce Development Council and dean of Mesa College's School of Business and Technology. "Our newest resource, careered.org, is part of the community colleges' ongoing effort to connect people with programs that will close the growing labor skill gap in our

region.''

There are more than 40,000 middle-skill job openings in San Diego and Imperial counties, according to a July report from the San Diego-Imperial Center of Excellence for Labor Market Research.

In San Diego County, the median hourly wage for such jobs is $22.10, higher than the general median of $19.30. The median wage for Imperial County middle-skill jobs is $19.25, also higher than the $14.42 general median average.