MINNEAPOLIS — For years, the nation has faced a shortage of skilled trades workers due in part to older workers retiring and fewer young people signing up to replace them.
But that trend may be changing.
At an on-campus inauguration Wednesday, Dunwoody College of Technology welcomed Scott Stallman as its 11th president.
"It's a big day," Stallman told KARE ahead of the ceremony. "We've got some great students here, some amazing faculty here and it's just a pleasure for me to be able to stand in front of folks and talk about how great this place is."
With St. Louis roots and recent work history in Houston, Stallman first joined Dunwoody in 2021 as college provost. He now replaces Rich Wagner who retired after 15 years as president.
"It's a very unique college in America," Stallman said of Dunwoody, which opened in 1914. "There aren't very many places that are non-profit colleges that are focused on high pay, high demand fields."
His promotion comes amid the national skilled trades worker shortage.
"So much so that sometimes construction projects are held up because they don't have a surveyor," he said.
But rising student enrollment could provide employers some hope, as the downtown Minneapolis college reported a 7.7% jump this year over last and a 43% increase from 11 years ago.
"There's a lot of things at play, but one of the biggest things is return on investment," Stallman said. "We put all of our resources there to make sure students get great jobs when they graduate."
The college offers more than 40 areas of study across two and four-year degree programs, and career fairs that bring hundreds of hiring companies to campus.
"A lot of times [students] want the two years so they can get out and start working and have that company pay for that four-year degree," Stallman said.
The college says it saw increased interest in nearly all academic areas this year, with majors in construction sciences, engineering and design seeing some of the largest upward movement.
"We continue to see strong enrollment in our electrical construction program," Stallman said.
Cybersecurity is another popular degree, with enrollment up 41% from last year. Dunwoody reports the demand for cybersecurity professionals is at an all-time high and is expected to grow 24% in Minnesota over the next seven years.
The number of women pursuing a technical degree at Dunwoody grew by nearly 10 percent this fall from last year. The number of students of color rose 5% and the number of first-generation college students rose 13% over the same timeframe.
"Any sort of stigma that was around the skilled trades honestly is eroding rapidly if it's not gone already," Stallman said.
Stallman says he plans to double down on growing the school's relationships with employers and connecting students with job opportunities.
The new president started life after high school earning a four-year undergraduate degree. He then worked a variety of jobs before finding work in the education field as a career services director at a small college in St. Louis. He went on to get a master's degree in adult and higher education at the University of Missouri and a PhD in higher education at Illinois State.