Member Matters August 2023

Career Pathway Partnerships
City Colleges of Chicago is augmenting its partnership with Amazon Web Services to offer experiential learning opportunities in machine learning, a field with high talent demand (City Colleges of Chicago).

A partnership between Metropolitan Community College and Enterprise Holdings is allowing MCC to enhance its training resources and offer new hands-on learning experiences to students. Enterprise Holdings' Collision Engineering Program currently includes seven U.S. institutions in a bid to qualify learners for the more than 110,000 collision technician job openings forecast by 2026 (Enterprise Holdings).

Austin Community College and Dwyer Workforce Development are launching a health care training program together that will draw upon federal, state, and local resources to connect workers to pathways leading to high-demand occupations (KEYE).

Heartland Community College, Mid Central Community Action, and the McLean County Chamber of Commerce are collaborating on a new 4,500-square-foot instructional site that will localize experiential learning opportunities in growth sectors for traditionally underserved populations (WGLT).

Imperial Valley College and three other institutions are partnering under a United States Department of Agriculture program to "advance equity in high-skill agriculture occupations for educationally disadvantaged, low-income, and Hispanic residents." Additional educational partners include Cal State University Monterey Bay, Hartnell College, and the University of Arizona, Yuma (The Desert Review).

In another USDA-driven partnership, Lincoln University is leading the HBCU-HSI-RIU Consortium: A Synergistic Paradigm for Training the Next Generation Agriculture Workforce for a Sustainable Future. Its participants include Texas A&M, Central State University, and Missouri University of Science & Technology (HBCU News).

American College of Education and the Midwest Coalition of Labor are partnering to offer discounted tuition to members of the nonprofit coalition (American College of Education).

Nunez Community College, the Louisiana Board of Regents, and New Orleans East Hospital are working together to help further the careers of health care workers at no cost to employees. NOEH staff will be able to enroll in the practical nursing program at NCC, an avenue of access to certification as an L.P.N. for non-nursing employees (WGNO).

Penn State is among the founding member institutions of the Northeast University Semiconductor Network. The network's focus areas include "industry-backed technical content, expanding experiential learning programs for greater access to cleanrooms and teaching labs, and bolstering research opportunities for students" (Penn State).

The Southwestern Electric Power Company and Northwest Louisiana Technical Community College have formed the NLTCC Lineworker Certification Program to offer 32 weeks of in-class and experiential learning that will qualify participants for lineworker employment, where there are an estimated 23,500 openings annually (KTAL).

Rio Salado College is partnering with the Tempe Chamber of Commerce to form the Tempe Workforce Skills Accelerator, which will offer microcredentials designed to both upskill the local workforce and stack into traditional academic programs (In Business Magazine).

Inmates in Ohio's prison system have new pathways to chemistry education and employment through a partnership that includes the University of Akron, Ohio Penal Industries, Summit Glove, and American Nitrile. The program was inspired during pandemic-era shortages in protective gear (Crain's Cleveland Business).

Creative Credentials
Elizabethtown College is adding online bootcamps geared to "post-traditional and career-changing learners" that can be completed in eight to 24 weeks (Elizabeth Town College).

The University of Central Missouri is offering short-term, industry-validated credentials for high-growth occupations that, thanks to a state grant program, allow businesses to connect employees to the programs at no cost to them (Link 2 Lee's Summit).

Parkland College is offering new certificate options in construction and "computer foundation" under its Support for Workforce Training program, which is noted for the one-on-one engagement it provides adult learners (WCIA).

A short-term program to credential students as medical coders, a rapidly growing occupation, is launching at Pitt Community College. Completing the non-credit certificate also confers eligibility for enrollment in two associate degree programs at the college (WITN).

Accelerating Adult Learning
Genesee Community College is adding technical programs in the fall that are synched to both the staffing needs of local employers and the scheduling needs of working adult learners (The Batavian).

A new program at Austin Community College offers student parents no-cost classes aimed at removing barriers to enrollment and career advancement. The classes, offered in Spanish and English, help students find resources like English language courses and support in entering an associate degree program. The program also covers early childhood education for the students children concurrent with their classes (KXAN).

Online Excellence
Ursuline College has migrated its M.B.A. program to an all-online, asynchronous format that offers networking with professors, peers, and external partners and focuses on "leadership skills for career mobility and development for any discipline or industry" (Cleveland.com).

American College of Education has added two doctoral-level degrees for professionals in early childhood education to its all-online catalog of programs. Students can stack previous ACE credentials into the programs to reduce their cost (American College of Education).

In Service of Veterans
Ohio University is hosting two-week training for fiber, 5G, and clean energy for veterans entering the civilian workforce. The training positions students to complete a certificate in fiber splicing and enter a one-year apprentice program while answering urgent demand for rural internet expansion (The Columbus Dispatch).

Syracuse University held a week-long entrepreneurial boot camp for veterans to unlock the skills the participants already have from their time in the service" (WRVO).

The University of the Incarnate Word, where around 21% of students are connected to the military, is using a state grant to create a "military transfer credit center" to make the recognition of competencies developed in the military more seamless and to support credential completion (San Antonio Business Journal).

Turning Talent Gaps Into Opportunities
Amid a labor shortage in which more than 80% of Georgia schools don't have enough teachers, Georgia Southern University is using a paid residency program to remove obstacles to education careers. It is also adding certification options for paraprofessionals and incentivizing students to pursue their careers in their rural hometowns (James Magazine).

Tuition discounts of 50% for more than 20 programs that prepare workers for success in high-demand fields are available at the Community College of Vermont (Community College of Vermont).

In Their Own Words
The president of the College of DuPage wrote of the powerful capacity of community colleges to catalyze both continued educational advancement and career progression (Daily Herald).

Notes of Distinction and Recognition
In fiscal year 2021-22, McNeese State University generated $614 million in total income for Southwest Louisiana, or 2.1% of its total gross regional product, according to Lightcast (McNeese State University).

Siena Heights University has been named a 2022-23 college of distinction (Siena Heights University).

Augusta University has been recognized as a top-ten university for return on investment (Augusta University).

The online cybersecurity master's degree program at Bay Path University has been praised as the third-best in the nation (Bay Path University).

Goshen College has been listed among the top baccalaureate colleges in the country (The Goshen News).

Valley City State University is ranked as one of the best colleges in America (VCSU).