‘Hot’ job market, meaningful work fuel demand for new major

-- Jc Drobac

Metropolitan State University’s chemical dependency program’s popularity among students who have made it their major, has surprised most. Only two years after the major was developed in 2000, the projected numbers of students enrolled in the program have exceeded two to three times beyond expectations.

Jobs may be the main motivator. Bill Payne, program director, sees the labor market as “very hot” for graduates. “All students who want a job, get one. Many are hired right out of internship. A workforce survey had two-thirds respond that the range of salaries is between $30,000 to $55,000,” explains Payne.

Metropolitan State University graduated its first alcohol and drug counseling students in December 2000. Thirty students have graduated since then, with 1,000 students having gone through the program so far. Payne explained the conservative graduation numbers. “It takes a while—between two to five years to complete this.”

Graduates in alcohol and drug counseling will likely focus on working with licensed chemical dependency programs. There are 45 inpatient programs, over 200 outpatient programs and many halfway houses and extended care facilities in which to work.

The chemical dependency program’s internship requires 880 hours, or about five to six months of fulltime work, to attain licensure. The program doesn’t limit the abundant internship sites, but assists in finding them, and offers a pre-internship course.

Payne speculated on other reasons for the program’s success, including world events such as 9/11. “More people went back to church, less went to bars.” More started re-examining their lives, thinking “I need to do something more meaningful.”

Payne sees people troubled about what’s going on in the world and in Minnesota, particularly the violence at Red lake. That tragedy and that trauma comes home to Minnesota. So people think ‘…I want to find something more meaningful in life.’ So I think that’s part of why people get attracted to this kind of major,” he says.

Payne is frank to admit that the percentage of the population experiencing problems with alcohol and drugs has remained the same for generations. These unchanged statistics underscore the need for more counseling. Those who enter treatment for the first time have a nationwide success rate of 18 to 25 percent. “In Minnesota, more people get the message that you go to treatment once and you should be done with it. A typical treatment program is that two-thirds of the people in there have been there before. In the last 10 years, that number used to be three-fourths people have been there before.”

“If we paid more attention to upfront engagement strategies using motivational interviewing, then we’re more likely to have people stay with treatment, however long treatment is. And people who do complete it and stay, do better,” he says.

The chemical dependency program asks, “What do you want out of this?” supporting the philosophy that those who remain committed to the process will do so because they know they’re getting something for themselves.

Despite the myth that most alcohol and drug counselors are in recovery themselves, the statistics show a 50/50 split, with just as many A & D counselors not having experienced addiction/recovery issues, Payne explains.

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