Virginia’s Community Colleges prepare next generation’s workers

Business leaders weighed in at the third in a series of “listening tours” at John Tyler Community College in Chester, saying training a new generation of workers should be a top priority for Virginia’s Community Colleges.

In an article in the Richmond Times Dispatch today, keeping young people in school, motivating Generation X & Y workers, ensuring that tomorrow’s workers have good workplace skills, and encouraging more skill based training problems in conjunction with the private sector are all ways Virginia’s Community Colleges can help tomorrow’s businesses and workers.

The forum was one of several held across the state in the past few weeks to help focus attention on what the next set of strategic goals for Virginia’s Community Colleges should look like.

The strategic plan under which Virginia’s Community Colleges have been operating since 2003 is called Dateline 2009.  As suggested by its name, the plan’s six-year window is approaching an end.  You can see the progress that has been made on it by visiting this dashboard. 

The next forum is scheduled for June 3 at Tidewater Community College’s Virginia Beach Campus.

A dedicated email address, ideas@vccs.edu, is also being launched to collect comments and is open to all stakeholders both inside and outside of Virginia’s Community Colleges.

Posted by Susan Hayden

The Virginian-Pilot Endorses VCCS Faculty Diversity Efforts

Describing Virginia’s Community Colleges as, “adept at predicting what their students will need to be successful and at aggressively pursuing those goals,” The Virginian-Pilot endorsed the Chancellor’s Graduate Student Fellowship program in an editorial.

Diverse educational institutions encourage critical thinking and teach students to succeed in a variety of situations. In a nutshell, diversity is good for learning.

Virginia’s community colleges have always been adept at predicting what their students will need to be successful and at aggressively pursuing those goals. It’s no surprise that they are taking the lead now on this valuable initiative.

The fellowship is part of an effort to diversify the teaching faculty at Virginia’s Community Colleges.  You can read more about it’s recent expansion to attract working professionals in this VaHigherEd.com post.

You can also learn more about the fellowship and hear from some students who have gone through it and a mentoring instructor working on it in Episode #16 of the VaHigherEd podcasting series.

Posted by Jeff Kraus

VaHigherEdPodcast: Episode 17 – Moving toward the same goals

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 17 - Chancellor Glenn DuBois reflects on Dateline 2009 strategic planning, and the “next generation” strategic planning that is under way at Virginia’s Community Colleges. As we near the end of the Dateline 2009 time period, several of the goals have already been — or will be — met.  Others have seen significant progress toward the goal.  DuBois is visiting college campuses this month on a “listening” tour that’s providing feedback on what the next set of goals should be.

See the Dateline 2009 dashboard. 
Submit a comment about goals for Virginia’s Community Colleges to ideas@vccs.edu.

Listen by clicking on the audio link above or downloading the link to VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 17.

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NOTE:  VaHigherEd Podcast will go on a summer break after this episode.  We’ll resume podcasting in August!

Be part of the next strategic plan for Virginia’s Community Colleges

The strategic plan under which Virginia’s Community Colleges have been operating since 2003 is called Dateline 2009.  As suggested by its name, the plan’s six-year window is approaching an end.  You can see the progress that has been made on it by visiting this dashboard.

As you can read in this VCCS news release the process is beginning for establishing the next strategic plan:

A group of VCCS officials, led by Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the VCCS, [is conducting] a series of community discussions across Virginia to understand how the colleges can improve the service they provide to students, families and businesses.  A dedicated email address, ideas@vccs.edu, is also being launched to collect comments.

…The regional meetings will include business, community and elected leaders along with economic development officials, students and other stakeholders. 

The email address mentioned above is open to everyone both inside and outside of Virginia’s Community Colleges.  It’s an effort to ensure that no good ideas are left behind for a network of colleges that serve more than 360,000 people across Virginia each year.

So the question is what can your community college do, or do better, to contribute to your success and to that of the larger community?

Posted by Jeff Kraus

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 16 – Faculty Diversity Program Expands

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 16 - This podcast episode features Chancellor Glenn DuBois, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Chris Lee, and participants in the Chancellor’s Faculty Diversity Program discussing ways the program is expanding to meet the goal of a more diverse faculty for Virginia’s Community Colleges. 

Reaching out to students in master’s and doctoral programs at Virginia’s top universities, as well as reaching out to organizations for minority professionals, will highlight Virginia’s Community Colleges as a great place for a career.

Listen by clicking on the audio link above or downloading the link to VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 16.

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Faculty diversity a challenging goal

Chancellor Glenn DuBois wants Virginia’s Community Colleges to be as diverse as the communities they serve.

And while that’s true on average for student enrollment — which is about one-third minority — when you look at the faculty, he says, “It falls far short.”

The Chancellor’s Graduate Student Fellowship has allowed students completing graduate work to teach in Virginia’s Community Colleges under the supervision of a mentor, if they have the requisite hours of course work completed.

Today, several participants of the program met to talk about their experiences and to support an expansion of the program providing even more focus on this area.

By reaching out even further into professional organizations and doctoral program students at Virginia’s top colleges and universities, Virginia’s Community Colleges hope to tap a pool of future faculty that will fall in love with the hands-on atmopshere of a community college — and come back to make it their career.

Posted by Susan Hayden

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 15 – Community college program provides on-the-job training

VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 15 - This week’s podcast features Virginia Western Community College student Stephen Jennings, who is finding the community college a great place to receive hands-on training for a third career in radiology.

Listen by clicking on the audio link above or downloading the link to VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 15.

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VCCS Helps Virginia Win Over $600 Million Corporate Investment

Up against national and international competition, Thomas Nelson Community College’s (TNCC) Workforce Development division couldn’t be beat.

Yesterday, Canon Inc. and Canon U.S.A., Inc. announced Canon’s plans to expand its U.S. operations with new facilities and jobs in the Hampton Roads area.  Canon is expected to invest more than $600 million to expand the operations of Canon Virginia, Inc., a subsidiary of Canon U.S.A. and create more than 1,000 new jobs.

Dr. Deborah G. Wright, Vice President for Workforce Development for TNCC says,

The project was won on the basis of our Workforce Development proposal.  Both Canon and the Virginia Economic Development Parternship said that the state’s economic proposal was good, but not good enough to win the project against at least two other states and three other countries.  The proposal development team is the best I have had the opportunity to participate in over 30 years of my service.

The proposal included a customized, multi-campus advanced manufacturing recruiting and training program valued at over $16 million.  Two-thirds of funding will come from sources that include the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), TNCC, the Virginia Department of Business Assistance (VDBA) and the Peninsula Workline One Stop.

The Southeast Virginia Community College Training Alliance, led by Dr. Wright, includes the VCCS, TNCC, four regional community colleges, VDBA, the Peninsula Council for Workforce Development, the Peninsula Worklink One Stop system, Old Dominion University and Canon Management.  TNCC will recruit and train new employees to deliver 880 technicians and supervisors over three years.

Governor Timothy Kaine said a key driver of the expansion decision was the development of a pipeline to recruit and train the new employees.  The Virginia Community College System provided the pipeline.

Dr. Glenn DuBois, Chancellor of Virginia’s Community Colleges said,

This is an incredible partnership that will connect highly-desired employees with highly-desired jobs, benefitting the entire community.  By creating this pipeline, we are connecting people who have retired from the military, advanced technology students and others seeking a new opportunity with a college curriculum that has been explicitly designed to meet Canon’s demanding job specifications.

The hiring pipeline will be modeled after the Southeast Virginia Advanced Manufacturing Pipeline led by TNCC that in three years has placed more than 3,500 skilled workers in jobs with some 60 companies in Hampton Roads, working in collaboration with the region’s workforce boards, one stop centers, and community colleges.

Read more about Canon’s expansion:

The Washington Continent
ChannelWeb
PR-Inside
Centre Daily Times
The Earth Times
Yahoo! Canada
Forbes

Submitted by Heather Millar