Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Warren Forest Higher Education Council Executive Director Joan Stitzinger presents data from the organization’s education needs assessment during an event Tuesday morning at the Warren County Career Center.

You have to know what the need is before you can plan how to meet it.

That’s the process the Warren Forest Higher Education Council is working through.

And the data from a public outreach effort was shared at an event held Tuesday morning at the Warren County Career Center.

The education needs assessment is an early piece of the Hi-Ed’s strategic planning process.

“(We) started this process back in May,” Hi-Ed Executive Director Joan Stitzinger said. “We got great responses from each section of the assessment.”

Those sections include high school students, community members and business and industry.

There’s much to learn from each of those groups about the status and preferences of education in the community.

Stitzinger said 415 Warren County High School students responded and “overwhelmingly” expressed a desire for face-to-face instruction, likely a reaction to the virtual school experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of the questions probed about career readiness and college choices and ultimately whether students think they’ll stay in Warren.

Stitzinger said that the data shows a majority of kids will attend within a 60 mile radius of Warren.

80 percent of students agreed to liking living in a rural region and the top reasons cited for looking to leave the county include educational options, family reasons and the weather.

They identified a variety of jobs, entertainment and housing options as amenities they’d want if they were to stay.

“Hopefully, we as a community are looking at these things,” Stitzinger said, arguing that it’s more likely to be successful to keep kids here than recruit people from outside the community to move here.

“It’s clear, kids at the sophomore level are pretty tuned into what is coming down the pike (and are) getting a plan together,” Bob Dilks, Hi-Ed board chair, said. He asked about the timeline that that planning is worked into the school district curriculum.

Eric Mineweaser, the WCSD’s director of administrative support services, noted that college and career readiness standards were manded about six years ago and are now in place for students in K-12.

He explained that students by the end of the eighth grade year are expected to pick a professional pathway that will be used to identify the most appropriate classes they should take in high school.

College and career work is “more embedded into the school day,” he added. “I think it’s working.”

Shifting to the adult leader section, Stitzinger said that “we do see generally well more females coming in and taking classes.”

The 80 responses in this area are “spread across the board in terms of age.”

Stitzinger outlined how the organization aims to “provide a ladder of education” regardless of where one is starting.

“We’re a rural community,” she said. “We can’t sustain everything.”

So it’s a matter of finding the right courses and instructors to meet the right needs.

While high school students responded with an overwhelming desire for in-person instruction, that looks different for adult learners.

“When you ask adults, they don’t want to be in the classroom all the time,” Stitzinger said. “Their preference (is) hybrid. They want to be able to work at home (but have) access to a face to face instructor.”

“More and more, our programs are going that way,” she said. “They’re adapting to it, working with it. That’s how a lot of programs are going now.”

Adult respondents identified time, convenience and cost as the top barriers or challenges to pursuing further education.

She highlighted how the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College has helped fill a gap.

“Getting that two-year that somebody could do here in Warren, we are very fortunate having NPRC here,” she said. “Serving this region is their mission. They aren’t going to turn tail and run. We are who they are supposed to serve. “

On the business side of the data gathering, Stitzinger acknowledged that the businesses having employment challenges tend to be the ones more likely to respond.

Top skills missing were identified as leadership, communication/teamwork and problem solving.

“(We) saw this as a theme,” she said;.

The surveys remain open and available at hi-ed.org.

“(Our) fall semester is just getting underway,” she said, noting that the survey is open to be able to capture feedback from those current students.

“We want to know what they’re thinking,” she said. “We’re still hoping (and) working to get outlying areas to participate.”