ERIE, Pa.—This fall session at Erie Institute of Technology is different—and not just because the enrollment of nearly 300 is the largest in the school's history.

This fall is the 51st for the school that began life in 1958 as American Television Electronic School.

In the years since, EIT has trained radio and television repairmen; shipped graduates to Western Union, Eriez Magnetics and General Electric Co.; retrained papermakers from International Paper Co.; and supplied slot-machine technicians to Presque Isle Downs & Casino.

What's never changed is the mission, said Paul Fitzgerald, director of the school.

"I think if you did a survey of our students, every single one of them would say their objective is to get a job," Fitzgerald said.

That meant no filler and no fluff.

That suited 44-year-old Ed Forget, of East Springfield, just fine when he enrolled in an electronics program at EIT in June 2007.

Forget, who had worked at Steris Corp. for seven years, had lost his job, was worried about losing his house and had no patience for classes that wouldn't move him quickly toward his goal.

For Forget, the time at EIT was an investment that paid dividends. Nine months into an 18-month program, he was hired by GE Transportation to build wiring harnesses for locomotives.

Like Forget, many of EIT's older students have been trained in recent years with government money under the Trade Adjustment Act and

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the Trade Readjustment Allowance programs.

"The thing about TRA and TAA is it's inconsistent," Fitzgerald said. "You can't plan your business around it, but it's icing on the cake."

Typically, Fitzgerald said, the school caters to a fairly even mix of so-called traditional students between the ages of 18 to 24 and older students who are retraining.

It's a combination that seems to work, he said.

"You put a guy who worked for 15 or 20 years together with a 19-year-old kid, and they end up becoming best buddies," he said.

Like an older student learning to study again, EIT faces its own set of challenges as it turns 50—the challenge of remaining relevant in a changing world.

Fitzgerald sees three key tests of relevance—three hurdles a proposed curriculum must offer before a new program is added at EIT.

There must be jobs in the field, there must be a way to develop the curriculum, and there must be students who want the training, Fitzgerald said.

That is as it's always been since the earliest days of the American Television Electronic School.

Fitzgerald said EIT and other local technical schools see another challenge on the horizon.

In late August, the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership and the Northwest Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center selected a Utah-based consulting firm to lay the groundwork for a new community college.

The proposed school has plenty of fans, but Fitzgerald has his doubts.

"Isn't a community college going to duplicate what we already have here?" he said. "I think between the technical schools in town and the traditional four-year colleges in town, I think every base is covered."

Fitzgerald said he's not prepared to say whether EIT and other Erie-area technical schools would be hurt by the presence of a community college.

"At the end of the day, we can control what we can control, and we can't control this," he said.

What the school can do, he added, is to do more of what it's done for the past 50 years.