What’s driving some local college students?

Jennifer Knight

Friday, Dec. 6, 2002 | 1:56 a.m.

Higher education and big rigs go together about as well as a cocktail of beer and diesel fuel -- yet a trucking school has found a home at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

CCSN's year-old professional trucking school is offering a way for aspiring truckers to get licensed, and revenue from the program is expected to help the college in a time of a statewide budget crisis.

"It's been quite successful," said Jim Shaw, CCSN's director of continuing education. "The (trucking) school is intended to make money. We think we will end up making a profit for the college and with the (budget) shortfall expected, we think we'll be able to put extra money into additional programs."

To learn how to truck, it costs students $3,198 for a 200-hour program. Students get the use of new equipment and a mock-up of the Department of Motor Vehicle test course that truckers are tested on.

So far, 128 people have gone through the program, which is growing quickly, but not fast enough, school officials say. Demand for truckers is high, with about 80,000 jobs nationwide going unfilled each year.

Schools located at publicly funded institutions such as CCSN are a good way to help fill those openings because there are no strings attached, as there often are with private schools, said Taylor Rodriguez, an instructor for the program.

"Most schools tie you to a four-year contract where you must lease your truck," Rodriguez said.

CCSN is the second school in the state to add a trucking program, after Great Basin College in Elko.

Nationwide, about 95 community colleges have added trucking schools to their list of offerings, according to the National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools.

"It's an up-and-coming thing to have a trucking school at community colleges," Rodriguez said.

Student Lewin Jones, 45, said he signed up for the program because he was having trouble finding work in Las Vegas.

"I've gone from flipping burgers to washing cars to setting up booths at conventions," Jones said. "It's kind of hard to find work in this town. I'm hoping this will get me work."

About 80 percent of the students who have gone through CCSN's trucking program passed the DMV test on their first try. About 47 percent of graduates have landed jobs locally and another 29 percent have obtained jobs with national trucking companies, according to CCSN.

Rodriguez said the school will continue to work with students who do not pass the DMV test on their first try.

About the only thing the school does not offer, Rodriguez said, is lessons on how to talk on the CB.

"When it comes to that, they're on their own," he said.