With employers crying out for competent workers, community colleges are being enlisted to train them, experts report.

• Nearly two-thirds of chief executive officers of businesses cite a lack of trained workers as a barrier to growth, according to a Coopers & Lybrand survey.

• Some 5.5 million full- and part-time students are enrolled in the country's roughly 1,500 two-year colleges.

• A growing number of these colleges are reportedly inviting employers to help shape degree programs around futur job openings -- particularly in the semiconductor field.

• Workers often go back to the schools after they have begun their careers to enhance their skills and prospects for advancement -- one survey finding the average age of electronics and semiconductor students at eight community colleges to be 31.

Some firms are also working with community colleges to train people on welfare. The welfare recipients are not automatically admitted, however. Generally, they must demonstrate basic speaking and reading skills. According to the Employment Policies Institute, some 38 percent of adults on welfare are functionally illiterate -- unable even to fill out a job application. Nearly 45 percent cannot perform even simple arithmetic, including making change.