Collin County has seen a large increase of company headquarters relocating to the area in the past 10 years.
Capital One, PepsiCo, J.C. Penney—and soon Toyota Motor North America—all call Collin County home and are large contributors to the county’s tax base. However, when it comes to economic significance there is another local contributor few may realize: Collin College.

Growing trend

During the 2014-15 school year, nearly 52,000 students were enrolled districtwide at Collin College, the only community college in the county. Although enrollment has been steadily increasing statewide, Steve Johnson, vice president for the Texas Association of Community Colleges, said that increase could soon become even greater.

“There has been a growing trend of high enrollment at the community college level,” he said. “We really saw an acceleration of enrollment in the late 2000s when the recession period began, and I think it’s driven by two factors: workforce training and cost.”

Johnson said nearly 72 percent of incoming college freshmen in Texas are enrolled at a community college. According to the TACC, 48 percent of all students in the state are enrolled at community colleges, compared with the 40 percent enrolled at public universities. The remaining 12 percent is divided among technical colleges, private universities and medical  higher education institutions.

Collin College economic effect

To illustrate the economic effect created by Collin College, district officials are working on a study that breaks down actual dollars pumped into the local economy by the district. So far the college has found that during the 2013-14 school year, the college and its students added $528.5 million in income to the college’s service area of Collin and Rockwall counties as well as the city of The Colony. That amount is equal to approximately 0.8 percent of the Gross Regional Product­—the market value of all goods and services in the area.

Collin College District President Neil Matkin said the effect includes alumni employed in the workforce and student spending in the community as well as jobs and operations at the college.

“If you consider the impact of alumni working in the workforce, that alone contributes $372.6 million to the economy every year,” Matkin said. “Businesses look for communities with strong educational systems, and quality higher education makes Collin County a hot spot for commerce.”

Those in the education sector are not the only ones interested in the economic effect of Collin College—businesses are also taking a close look at the availability of an educated workforce. When Capital One was awarded a grant from the Texas Workforce Commission, it partnered with Collin College to offer training for employees in its mortgage services area.

“By helping to build a stronger workforce and giving local residents a chance to succeed, Collin College provides a significant and positive economic impact to Collin County and the Dallas-Fort Worth region as a whole,” said Meghan Welch, vice president of human resources at Capital One Financial Services. “The education and technical skill set of our local workforce will be a deciding factor in the region’s ability to reach its potential for continued investment and job growth. It will help ensure that local companies are able to recruit people who will help them thrive in today’s competitive marketplace.”

The McKinney Economic Development Corp. is tasked with recruiting businesses, their headquarters and even new industry to relocate to McKinney. MEDC representatives have recently traveled to California, New York and even China to attract new companies to the area, board Chairman Darrel Tate said.

“Education is very important to these businesses looking to relocate to McKinney,” Tate said. “The representatives from these companies come to McKinney looking for a number of different things, and one major item is whether we have higher education in our community.”

Filling the gap

Although community colleges throughout the state continue to see high enrollment, Johnson said the need for technical colleges is increasing. Institutions such as Collin College are working to expand their services to bridge that gap, he said.

“We are at the third-highest enrollment in history at community colleges statewide,” he said. “I think the niche that community colleges fill—as opposed to universities—is workforce training. And companies locate in and stay in regions where they know they will have a skilled workforce.”

When a major manufacturer announced it was considering moving its headquarters to the county, Matkin said he began thinking of ways to help accommodate the company’s need for an educated workforce. According to Matkin, that feeling was mutual.

“[A major manufacturer] has contacted us and said since Collin County doesn’t have an automotive training program, would [we] like to start one?” Matkin said. “We had that meeting [in June], and we said, ‘Yes, thank you very much for asking.’”

Tate said local businesses are also looking forward to the possible addition of technical schools in McKinney, adding that the city needs mechanics, electricians and plumbers.

“A friend of mine is a car dealer here in McKinney, and just about every time I see him he asks where we stand on getting a technical school for mechanics,” Tate said.

As Collin College looks into expanding its physical footprint across the southern, eastern and western borders of the county, Matkin said the college aims to expand its technical courses as well.

“So when I say we are committed to serving every student, I don’t mean in just a transfer capacity but in a comprehensive community college capacity,” he said. “A lot of those technical skills that we don’t [currently] offer are in extraordinarily high demand. Most community colleges have both the academic and technical side that are usually very well-developed and tied to industries in the area to meet their needs. We will listen very closely to see what we will need to provide to better serve everyone in the county.”