[Kaye:] All week, CNN is going in-depth, breaking down the current job market and what you need to know. Young or old, if you're having a hard time landing a good-paying job, technical college could be a good option. CNN Catherine Callaway reports.
[John Appleby, Technical College Student:] I am the oldest. I am older than the instructor.
[Catherine Callaway, Cnn Correspondent:] At 61, John Appleby is a true senior among students at Chattahoochee Technical College. This housepainter's journey back to school to study diesel technology began with the decline in construction that left him out of a job.
[Appleby:] I got tired of not being able to do any work because nobody wanted to pay me none. So I thought, I'm going to do something I can make a living at and something I will enjoy.
[Callaway:] Appleby is counting on making more money as a trained diesel mechanic. Many workers, especially in the manufacturing sector, turn to technical schools to maneuver themselves into better- paying jobs. [on camera]: Enrollment here at Chattahoochee Technical College has increased more than 15 percent over last year in large part due to the struggling economy. Students come here to get degrees in fields that range from mechanical to medical, from cosmetology to computers. [voice-over]: Seventeen-year-old Emily Wilson is the face of another growing population at technical schools, the young student who takes college courses in high school. Through a state program, she's using tax dollars that would go to her high school to pay for her technical college education.
[Emily Wilson, Technical College Student:] It make me excited, because I know I'm getting ahead where I need to be, to be able to finish college as soon as possible and get my career on a start.
[Callaway:] Emily will graduate high school with a year of classes completed toward her two-year associate degree in accounting. She'll be able to work sooner, and that may allow her to continue her education at a four-year institution. The president of CTC says the colleges have to adapt to the needs of the job market.
[Sanford Chandler, President, Chattahoochee Technical College:] We're going to grow a group of entrepreneurs in the future, a group of people who can lead our country out of this transformational recession we've seen, then we think that we do that through changing the technology that they know, their knowledge base, and it will be done across a spectrum of people from the traditional student to the non- traditional student.
[Appleby:] My first day in math class, I mean, I'm saying I raised my hand and I said, "I haven't done an algebra problem since 1964."
[Callaway:] Appleby says going back to school at his age has been difficult, but as retirement age rises, he knows training for skilled jobs is a must for the young and old alike. In Acworth, Georgia, Catherine Callaway, CNN.