With the economy still struggling and traditional jobs at a premium, more and more residents seem to be turning to workforce training to learn the new skills necessary to support themselves and their families.

Jason Perry, vice president of Rappahannock Community College’s workforce and community development, said numbers have risen sharply for those students completing custom, credit courses. These, he said, are courses usually designed for companies or organizations that are looking to provide their employees with specialized training.

The number of those completing these courses, he said, has increased 547 percent from Spring 2010 to Spring 2011. Enrollment in credit courses at RCC open to the entire community, he said, has increased 351 percent from the spring of 2010 to the spring of 2011.

"We’ve already seen in the first quarter of this year a fairly large increase in our total enrollment," Perry said.

On the academic side, Donna Alexander, RCC&...