In the years I’ve spent reporting on education, the closest I’ve come to anything like an epiphany on the subject was when I made my first visit to a college campus.

My first college visit in Scotland was to UHI Inverness, and Glasgow Kelvin College left a lasting impression. When I first came through the door at the Springburn campus for an interview, nothing particularly remarkable stood out immediately.

But past the reception desk and the student café, two huge doors opened up to a series of hallways and classrooms that could only be called classrooms in the most literal sense. Apart from being rooms where classes were held, they were also simulated factories, model homes, auto garages, fashion studios and more.

Even after countless visits like it, the effect blew me away. But it shouldn’t have really, because I’d been primed for it years before. I had a similar experience at the first college I ever visited, back home in the US in Lenoir, North Carolina.

When I first toured the model furniture manufacturing spaces, design rooms, full-size powerline setups, and healthcare facilities at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute (CCC&TI), I was truly blown away. I’d driven past community college campuses—including this one—countless times before then but never had an inkling what was going on at any of them.

Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute introduces young people to the jobs and careers actively hiring and growing in their community.Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute introduces young people to the jobs and careers actively hiring and growing in their community. (Image: CCC&TI)

Even more striking was the fact that, when I was standing in some of those awesome rooms at CCC&TI, I was technically in a high school classroom. At CCC&TI, there are two public high school on the college’s main campus, and the students there regularly attend college classes.

You’re also as likely to run into younger students on any given day, visiting for a particular programme or as part of one of CCC&TI’s many widening access initiatives. When I was in school, I never had those types of experiences, and the goal for myself and my classmates was to go to university. This meant I never had the first clue what colleges had to offer.

Instead, I’d drive past my local community college once every few days and, only on occasion, wonder “What goes on over there?”

Colleges in the US and Scotland are struggling to overcome an array of obstacles, beginning with a basic social stigma and ending with serious financial concerns.

But I think that one of the reasons colleges are constantly battling these challenges – yes, including the major funding crisis here in Scotland – is that criminally few people experience that first visit to a college campus.

Some people think that college isn’t right for them, or isn’t going to get them where they think they want to be in life, but too many simply have no idea what goes on every day on campuses across the country.

Bringing young people into the fold, and showing school pupils what kinds of opportunities colleges offer, is a critical tool in the college arsenal to not only fulfill their key operational goals and maintain their links to the community, but it could also be a key for longevity.

As a clear example from my experience, CCC&TI has been able to thrive against a backdrop of funding cuts and social stigma. That’s because, in addition to the many ways that the college has made itself synonymous with the local community and frankly, indispensable to the local economy, it also houses a population of college evangelists.

Most of the high school students at the two schools linked to CCC&TI will graduate with their high school diplomas and an associate’s degree, essentially the first two years of a university bachelor’s degree.

Some will take their next steps directly into employment, depending on their chosen trade or area of study. Others will go on to a university programme and finish out their undergraduate degree with two years of work under their belts and – crucially for American students – two years of tuition shaved off. (One of the schools tends to attract students who are more focused on apprenticeships, trades, engineering, or applied sciences, while the other – again, very informally – tends to attract students looking for a foot in the university door.)

And importantly for the college, they all carry with them an appreciation of what college has to offer, and a great answer for the next person who drives by the campus asking “What goes on over there?”