While college enrollment continues to drop in Pennsylvania, there are oases of higher education that seem to be bucking the trend.

Last year, Slippery Rock University saw the biggest enrollment in the school's history with an increase of 257 students over the previous year.

School officials credit the increase with the university's focus on pragmatic classes and programs.

“We are creating new academic programs that have a market demand,” said Amanda Yale, associate provost for enrollment management.

“But we're not just creating new programs for the sake of creating them. There's a lot of research that goes behind choosing what programs to create and which ones will be the right fit for a new student coming to SRU.”

Regardless enrollment ups and downs, information provided by the Pew Research Center indicates that those with a four-year degree make on average $15,000 a year more than those with a two-year degree or some college, and $17,000 more than those with just a high school diploma.

They are also more likely to have a job that they enjoy and to stay above the poverty line.

On the other side of the issue, some local organizations and residents question the need for a four-year degree.

According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, college enrollment continued to decrease last year. In Pennsylvania, college and university enrollments in 2016-17 declined by more than 18,000 from the year before.

New York lost more than 30,000 students last year, the most of any state, and as the enrollment trends continue downward, schools have been looking for ways to compete.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a massive scholarship with the aim of making the state's four-year public schools free for qualifying students.

The program would require students to stay in New York for as many years after college as they had been receiving aid. Otherwise, the scholarship becomes a loan they must pay back in full.

Some employers in Pennsylvania are putting experience ahead of college degrees, and many students would prefer to skip the growing expense of higher education.

Phyllis Miller, human resources manager at Hamill Manufacturing in Trafford, Westmoreland County, said that above all, her company is looking for employees with technical skills. Hamill specializes in precision machining, welding, and fabrication.

“I have people who apply and have bachelor's degrees in communications, business, sociology,” she said. “And without experience in machines and robotics, I can't use them.”

Employees in manufacturing aren't the unskilled labor force they once were. They are trained and specialized. Miller said that comes with hands-on experience.

“We have a great apprenticeship program at Hamill,” she said.

Often, apprentices join right out of high school or after enrolling in a technical school, making a well-paying, in-demand career for themselves without ever enrolling in a four-year college.

“Manufacturing isn't like it used to be. It's a lot cleaner,” she said. “The work is mostly automated on huge CNC machines.”

Miller said what Hamill needs are people to work on the machines, not to produce the product. This requires hiring people with the right, hands-on experience.

Miller is also the chairman of BotsIQ, a group that hosts tournaments at which Butler County high school students can battle robots they made in engineering clubs after school.

“There have been students who've gotten job offers from these tournaments,” she said.

Programs like these not only offer students the chance to learn and showcase their abilities, in later tournaments, students have the chance to meet businesses looking to hire.