Nearly 150 Albany-Area Chamber of Commerce members came together to listen to Dr. Rita Cavin, Linn-Benton Community College president, at the Linn County Fair & Expo Center Wednesday.

Using information from Oregon's Workforce Investment Board, Cavin noted Oregon's younger generation is not as educated as the baby boomers.

She said 87 percent of all new jobs in this decade will require at least a two-year college degree.

Major job opportunities in Linn and Benton counties include health care (particularly nurses and radiologic technologists), mechatronics and manufacturing.

Cavin said more "middle skill" level workers need to be created to fill hands-on, family-wage jobs that require at least a high school diploma.

"That's our niche," she said.

She noted the first GI Bill paid full tuition at any school the student could get into n whether it be a small state college or Harvard. It also paid books and living expenses.

Ten million soldiers received a college education or job training under the World War II-era GI Bill, she said. It produced 14 Nobel prize winners, three Supreme Court justices, 24 Pulitzer Prize winners and three presidents.

It cost $10 billion dollars at the time. In today's dollars it cost $50 billion and returned $350 billion to the economy, she said.

Now vets are returning to the Willamette Valley from Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The federal government was not stepping up in the way it has historically," Cavin said. "But now it is changing its tune."

The new GI Bill covers the cost of education with a book and living stipend.

"If we want our returning veterans to remain in the Willamette Valley for their education and future employment, we must be ready to serve them," Cavin said.

Ann Malosh, dean of health occupations and workforce education, said LBCC surveys and interviews show there is a "desperate need" to bring more people into all of the skilled trades, particularly electricians.