DENVER — Trade schools are speculating the impact of tariffs on their student's lives and job opportunities.
Emily Griffith Technical College has 18 different programs. The school's executive director Randy Johnson said there's not any immediate negative for Emily Griffith Technical College impacts from the tariffs.
"Tariffs for us, it's all speculative, but we do have, we do have some insights into some potentials," Johnson said. "For example, we're in an auto collision shop, and our instructor in this program last week was sharing one of the potential impacts could be an increase in jobs for his students as more people decide to keep cars, repair cars and maintain what they have."
That's just one example, and Johnson said the trades will always be responsive to the economy.
"Regardless of what the is going on at a national level, there's still going to need to be people to maintain the infrastructure of the city and society," Johnson said. "The careers that we're preparing students for, They're recession proof, they're depression proof, they're pandemic proof, and they're in a lot of ways politically exempted from what's going on because it's all about what keeps society running."
One of the things the college is really looking at, according to Johnson, is if it'll see an increase cost in some of the supplies needed.
"The majority of our vehicles, we go through a process of donations, and that's really been the heart of how we gather the vehicles that you see here," Johnson said. "We have many industry partners who have actually donated and supported us."
Another thing the college is tracking is enrollment.
"Anytime that there's great demand in the local economy for any careers, there's always the potential that our enrollment demand, in particular, in training for those careers, will skyrocket as well," Johnson said. "If industry grows, you'll see us opening up more and more opportunities, because we will have students at the door."
Johnson re-emphasized that right now, all their discussions are speculative as they're seeing no immediate impacts from tariffs.
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