Tarrant Business

TCU entrepreneurship program ranked No. 6 in U.S.

 Texas Christian University's undergraduate program in entrepreneurship at the Neeley School of Business is ranked No. 6 in the country, up from No. 9 last year, by Bloomberg Businessweek. TCU said the magazine surveyed more than 85,000 students at 145 top business schools and asked them to rate their program’s performance in entrepreneurship. The top program was at Worchester Polytechnic Institute. Baylor's Hankamer School of Business was No. 3 and the top Texas program for entrepreneurship.

“We have built an innovative program with our entrepreneurial management major and the rich diversity of programs offered through the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center,” O. Homer Erekson, dean of the Neeley School, said in a prepared release.

TCU was ranked No. 28 overall among undergraduate business programs overall, its same rank a year ago, according to the magazine's website. The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business was the top Texas undergraduate program at No. 9. Notre Dame was No. 1, followed by the University of Virginia and Cornell University. Other Texas undergrad business programs included: Southern Methodist University, No. 30; Texas A&M University, No. 33; Baylor, No. 66; and the University of Texas at Dallas, No. 75.

-- Jim Fuquay

Texas unemployment rate drops to 6.6 percent

Texas’ unemployment rate fell to 6.6 percent in October from 6.8 percent the previous month, as six of the state’s 11 major industries reported gains, led by education and health. Employers added 36,600 payroll jobs in the month and have added 269,000 jobs in the past year, which has seen all but one of the state’s major industries add positions, the Texas Workforce Commission said Friday. The annual gain amounts to 3 percent, well over the U.S. rate of 1.8 percent in the same time, and the state’s jobless rate is well below the national rate of 7.9 percent. The category that includes education and health jobs added 13,700 jobs in October, the largest monthly gain ever, TWC said. The category is up 43,000 jobs over the past year.

In Fort Worth-Arlington, employers added 4,600 new positions in October. The area’s unemployment rate was 6.1 percent, which is unadjusted for seasonal variations. It compares to the state’s unadjusted rate of 6.3 percent.

-- Jim Fuquay

GE has begun hiring and training workers for new manufacturing plants

GE Manufacturing Solutions has begun hiring and training employees for its new mining equipment and locomotive manufacturing operations in far north Fort Worth.

GE officials said Monday they have already hired and trained a handful of manufacturing workers to build electric-drive wheel systems for huge off-road vehicles used in mining.

Many more must be hired and trained before the locomotive manufacturing plant can begin operations in the fourth quarter.

“This has been a very challenging timetable to get a facility” set up and running, said Walter Amaya, the executive overseeing preparations for the two plants.

The Texas Workforce Commission presented a $744,845 check to Tarrant County College to fund job training for 275 GE workers. Training will be provided at TCC’s South campus and at the North Central Texas College welding training lab in Gainesville.

Once trained GE workers starting pay will be $17 an hour. Applications for positions at the two GE plants can only be submitted online at: www.getjobsintexas.com

-Bob Cox

 

TCU's Neeley business school moves up in U.S. News ranking

The Neeley School of Business at TCU’s undergraduate business program moved up 19 spots to 69th on the 2012 U.S. News & World Report ranking of the Best Undergraduate Business programs.

The report rated 633 schools. The ranking noted 40 percent of classes have fewer than 20 students, and the student-faculty ratio is 13-to-1.

No. 1 was the University of Pennsylvania. Among Texas programs in the ranking: University of Texas, 6; SMU and Texas A&M, tied for 36; Baylor, tied with TCU at 69; UT-Dallas, 81; Texas Tech and University of Texas at Arlington, tied at 115; Trinity University, University of North Texas, and University of Texas at San Antonio, tied at 185.

- Scott Nishimura

Texas' student career interests don't match up with projected job supply, ACT says

Are students prepared for college and careers?

That's the question ACT asks in its new "Condition of College & Career Readiness 2010" report. In Texas, as across the nation, many students fall short of ACT benchmarks for college readiness. And not enough are interested in the careers where there will be the most demand for new workers in the decade ending 2018, ACT says.

Click here to view the report's Texas summary.

In Texas, here's the report's data on percent of projected annual job openings requiring at least a two-year college degree, and the percentage of 2010 ACT-tested high school graduates interested in those jobs:

* Education: 20 percent of job openings, 10 percent of grads interested.

* Management: 11 percent of job openings, 8 percent of grads interested.

* Computer/information specialties: 10 percent of job openings, 2 percent of grads interested.

* Marketing and sales: 8 percent of job openings, 2 percent of grads interested.

* Healthcare: 7 percent of job openings, 8 percent of grads interested.

- Scott Nishimura, jobs and workplace reporter, Star-Telegram

Tarrant County College wins $2 million grant to boost focus on first-time students

Tarrant County College says it’s  won a $2 million Education Department grant that will expand focus on first-time students, staff and faculty development, and graduation rates for Hispanics and blacks.

The grant will span five years, at $400,000 a year and will, in part, expand initiatives that the college launched this fall, said Joy Gates Black, TCC’s vice chancellor for student success.

Goals:

* “Increase levels of success for first-time-in-college students who demonstrate a need for remediation in one or more essential skill areas necessary for college-level achievement (reading, writing, mathematics.”

* “Increase faculty and staff knowlecge and skills necessary to implement promising and best practices focused on increasing levels of success, rates of persistence, and rates of graduation.”

* “Increase rates of persistence and graduation among…students, with special focus on African-American and Hispanic student populations.”

- Scott Nishimura, jobs and workplace reporter, Star-Telegram