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Enrollment at Leon's Beauty School is maxed out.

The same goes for Rockingham Community College, which is busting at the seams with applicants for its health-care programs.

And because of high demand, Forsyth Technical Community College briefly considered having a midnight to 6 a.m. welding class. Believe it or not, students actually said they would attend.

The only problem was no one could be found to teach it.

The laid-off, soon-to-be laid-off and those who fear being laid off are finding refuge in an unlikely place -- vocational schools and community colleges. And many people who already have bachelor's degrees but can't find a job are joining them.

Former textile workers are designing brochures, fuel tank inspectors are doing hair, and mechanics, such as Greg Layton of Randleman, are working in the kitchen at Guilford Technical Community College.

"I actually have an associate's degree through Guilford Tech in automotive and worked my way through school by cooking at night," he says. "But when the gas prices went up, fewer people got their cars worked on."

Hands-on learning, work

Nationwide, enrollment has increased an estimated 8 to 10 percent this school year, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.

Many Triad schools are reporting a spike of about 10 percent this year, and some programs are experiencing their highest enrollment ever.

"The diversity of the individuals coming to us has been interesting," says Sue Marion, vice president of continuing education at Forsyth Tech. "You have husbands and wives going through unemployment together. We have single mothers who are needing to return to the work force. We can't promise them a job, but we can help them with the job search."

Jerry Evans's story is typical of what's happened to many textile workers.

He went to work for a seemingly stable company -- Hanesbrands in 1978 -- and pictured working there until the day he retired.

That changed in 2007, when he was told his job was being shipped to the Dominican Republic.

Now 54, he is studying air conditioning, heating and refrigeration at Forsyth Tech.

"I've always been mechanically inclined and liked to tinker," Evans says. "And in this field, I figured I wouldn't have to worry too much about my job getting outsourced."

Just peruse the want ads on any given day. Openings for specialists in welding, auto repair and plumbing are many.

The same can be said about the number of people trying to get skilled in those fields.

"A lot of our trade programs are full," says Leonard Kiser, dean of engineering technologies at Forsyth Tech. "We have caps on classes and we've been exceeding those, in a lot of cases, by two or three students."

Kiser says one of the biggest problems with the welding program is making sure enough stations are available to keep students busy.

As it is, classes go on throughout the day until about 10 p.m.

Rodney Smith, chairman of Forsyth's integrated manufacturing technologies department, believes the federal stimulus program will only create more demand for his students.

"Put aside all the politics," he says. "Basically, they're going to be building roads, they're going to be building schools. That says to me that they're going to need someone to weld bridges. They're going to need someone to put roofs on schools."

I need a nurse, stat!

Few professions in the United States have as great a need for workers as nursing.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, enrollment at nursing schools nationwide is up only two percent -- and still many struggle to accommodate students.

"We have a finite amount of space in the classrooms and laboratories, and at our hospitals and clinical sites," says Tom Harding, dean of health sciences at Rockingham Community College. "And we may get 140 applicants for 35 nursing seats."

Allison Howard has a degree in clothing and textile design from UNCG. After a stint as a graphic designer in Spartanburg, S.C., she moved back to the area to be closer to her family.

But the 34-year-old single mother found no jobs in the textile industry, and with her degree many other potential employers said she was overqualified.

She started waiting tables.

"I had to do something to be able to support me and my son," says Howard, who is now in her second semester at GTCC. "After a couple of years of searching, I decided to go back to school, and nursing just seemed the best option and offered the best chance of getting a job after graduating."

Aside from providing a steady job, the nursing profession also offers many students a sense of gratification that Kathy Phillips, department chairwoman for nursing at GTCC, says was missing in many of their previous endeavors.

"Certainly we see folks who have lost jobs and are looking for another route," she says. "But many of them are also caregivers by nature."

'People have to look good'

Cosmetology is not a recession-proof industry, Leon's owner Parker Washburn says.

But hair grows, and eventually people need to come in for a trim, so the business fares better than most.

"In a bad economy people may put off getting their hair done," she says. "People might stretch that six-week appointment into eight weeks or 12 weeks. But people still have to look good. Even people who get laid off, they still have to look good for job interviews."

Leon's was founded by Washburn's stepfather in 1945. Since then, Washburn, a small, energetic woman with a mop of gray curls, has seen several bad economies. And during each one the number of applications has spiked.

But she doesn't recall ever seeing as high a level of interest as she has over the past year. The school's ranks include former art students, people who used to work in finance, even a former operations manager for a medical gas company.

His name is Steve Eggleston. The 36-year-old father of two had been employed with LightGas for about 10 years when he got laid off in November.

"I've always wanted to be a barber," he says. "And the salon that I go to told me I was probably selling myself short if I just wanted to be a barber. In cosmetology you also learn to do women's hair, and if you're going to do a trade like that, you need to learn as much about it as you can."

Morris "Boz" Boswell, chairman of the cosmetology department at GTCC, says students can typically complete their training in about 10 months to a year -- a plus for people looking to get back into the work force quickly.

"For some, even though it was unfortunate to be laid off," he says, "it has given them the opportunity to go into a career that they've wanted to do for a long time."

GTCC's main floors resemble typical salons, with mirrored stations laden with the potent potpourri of coloring, bleaching and curling agents and domed dryers. The main difference is the sight of mannequin heads that some students use for practice.

On a typical Saturday at Leon's, though, the heads are real as patrons pack the place.

"Guess what our biggest increase in services is," Washburn says. "Corrective hair color because people have been trying to save money by doing it at home."

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com