Enrollment is up at South Dakota’s technical schools. That, according to the state Board of Technical Education chair, bucks nationwide trade school trends.
Thursday marked the most recent Board of Technical Education meeting, and the public received the positive enrollment report.
That information was delivered by board data analyst Jenna Reis.
“This year, out total headcount for the fall was 7,407," Reis said. "This is a 7% increase from fall of 2023, and just for background last year our headcount was 6,900 students. So, we’re up almost 500 students from last year.”
Reis cites strong turnout among first-year enrollees, along with great retention numbers among returning students, as the drivers of the increase.
"Seventy percent of our career clusters did have an increase this fall, with healthcare, dual enrollment, and architecture and construction leading the way as has been in past years," Reis said. "Now, page 4 and 5 show enrollment breakdowns for each of our technical colleges and their career clusters, and one thing to note is that each of our campuses did have an enrollment increase this fall.”
Board chair Dana Dykhouse said South Dakota is unique in this result.
“That is a tremendous number, something we should certainly celebrate that all four of our colleges are up in enrollment," Dykhouse said. "That is not the trend nationwide, you are bucking that trend and producing what we really need – people in our workforce – and we know there’s been significant effort going into making that.”
School by school, Southeast Tech in Sioux Falls tallies 2,689 attendees and recorded the largest overall enrollment jump. Across the state in Rapid City, Western Dakota Tech now has 1,199 students. Mitchell Tech now hosts 1,237 students, and Watertown’s Lake Area Tech reports a student body of 2,312.