Last week, spring-semester enrollment stood at 3,995 students, a 21-percent jump over last spring and a rare increase over the fall semester.

While the increase has been across the board, hands-on vocational programs have seen some of the heaviest growth, said Traci Ashley, the school's information officer.

"The trend that we're noticing is that people who have lost their jobs and come back to school are seeking more programs that have hands-on training and can get them back to work quickly," Ashley said.

After losing their jobs, many displaced workers go for a vocational program that puts them behind the wheel of a truck or in a welder's mask. Overall, the college's vocational programs have seen almost a 25-percent jump in enrollment compared to last year.

"As unemployment rises, we've ... seen more and more students," said Michael Starling, chair of applied industrial technology at JCC. "We're the quickest path to a new career."

The heating and air conditioning program is the school's most popular vocational offering, while welding, trucking and diesel mechanics are also drawing new students, Starling said.

Half of the new students are laid-off workers, compared to about 15 percent a few years ago, Starling said. Students can finish the welding program in one calendar year. The heating and cooling training takes two years, though students can start working with an HVAC certification after a semester.

What awaits when they finish? Starling said about 45 percent of the HVAC and welding students find work soon after graduation, while nearly 80 percent of the newly-minted truck drivers are soon employed.

Students might wish for higher percentages, but some see community college as a good use of bad times.

"They're really thinking they're going to bridge this slump," Starling said. "Our jobs always come back first."

James Crickenberger, 20, is a subscriber to that strategy. He first came to JCC two years ago, planning to transfer to N.C. State for engineering. Eventually, that plan fell away.

"I decided I was down on my luck" and wanted to try something hands-on, he said. He earned his welding certificate recently but found it wasn't enough.

"[Companies] all say 'We'd love to put you to work,'" he said. But "they can't afford it."

So, with a shorter gap than most, Crickenberger went back to school. Now, he's starting work on the diesel-mechanic program, hoping that a diverse skill set will help him find the local work that isn't materializing right now.

Nery Pena, 43, has had the same sour luck, even with decades of experience in welding.

"I try to find the work," Pena said, but he's been unemployed for almost a year. Now, he's learning a few new styles of welding that he thinks will make him more employable.

Sherman Graham, who teaches in the automotive program at JCC, thinks the tide will turn for vocational jobs, partially because he foresees a constant local demand for hands-on jobs.

"They can't ship it over to China, repair it and ship it back," he said.