In the four years since the Maine Technical College System became the Maine Community College System, enrollment is up 57 percent systemwide, and more students are eager to get in. Meanwhile, a legislative panel was recently told that Maine does not have enough skilled workers to fill jobs that go unfilled in several parts of the state. What’s more, some regions of Maine have chronic unemployment or underemployment that make living precarious and drive younger residents away.

Legislative panels can meet about this situation, more studies can be conducted and stakeholders can gather to parse the mysteries of shifting employment trends, but they will still find answers that are neither complicated nor cheap. The question is how can Maine expand access to higher education, especially but not exclusively at its community colleges, for both in-state and out-of-state students, whose experience shows they are likely to remain in the state after graduation?

Even with the substantial rise in students since 2003, community college enrollment is still only about 11,800. “But we really should be at 30,000,” says the system’s president, John Fitzsimmons. He’s right – and if Maine residents want to see the economy grow statewide, see new local start-ups and attract new businesses here, Maine must train a higher percentage of its work force in areas from nursing to fabricated metals. And not only through community colleges but beginning in high school, including apprenticeship programs, and through the University of Maine System, both in liberal arts and scientific pursuits. It needs more programs such as the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which offers short-term training to connect workers and employment opportunities.

John Dorrer of the Maine Department of Labor recently gave lawmakers on the Study Commission on Post Secondary Access a snapshot of the state’s labor force and how they are affected, most noticeably, by technological changes but also by global competition, demographics and worker expectations. As many would have heard before, the state’s work force is aging, decades-long increases in labor force growth from women joining is now over and the overall rate of labor force growth compared with the 1980s and 1990s is steeply diminished. To thrive, Maine must train a higher percentage of its workers and ensure that all parts of the state receive the benefits.

The point of President Fitzsimmons comment is for Maine to think big. Rather than always hoping for an incremental change to come along as it has in Maine previously when in-migration changed demographics, he is saying that we should plan to be successful by aiming high enough to make a difference.

There’s nothing wrong with having more meetings and presentations about this, but the answer to Maine’s employment challenges is no secret.