GCC Ramps Up Workforce Development Transformation Program

June 11, 2012

Greenfield Community College (GCC) is ramping up its three-year federally funded Workforce Development Transformation (WDT) program this summer and has hired three new staff members. The WDT program is a local partnership between GCC, the Franklin Hampshire Career Center and the Franklin Hampshire Regional Employment Board, as part of a $20 million statewide partnership initiative funded by the Department of Labor.

In March, GCC hired Andrew Baker to direct the WDT program at GCC. Mr. Baker most recently directed a 2-year DOL-funded green job training program for the Franklin Hampshire Regional Employment Board, in which GCC has been a primary training partner. His responsibilities for managing the 2-year green job training program included helping unemployed workers in 4 western Massachusetts counties re-skill for careers in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Baker also coordinated the efforts of 3 workforce investment boards, 3 community colleges and a network of green businesses to achieve training and job placement goals in that program. He will continue that same level of effort to ensure coordinated activities and successful outcomes for the new WDT grant program.

Sarah Wing recently accepted a full-time position as Career Navigator for the WDT project and will start on July 2. As a Career Navigator, Ms. Wing will work at the Franklin Hampshire Career Center and will assist unemployed workers interested in re-training at GCC and other community colleges. She will also research ways to streamline the training enrollment process and look for new training options that might attract more unemployed workers to GCC. Ms. Wing has worked at FHCC for over 20 years and also at GCC as an adjunct instructor.

Nessim Watson was also hired in June and accepted a ¾ time position as Academic and Career Advisor starting in mid-July. He will provide direct advising services to students in programs related to the WDT grant and will work with faculty to incorporate career development skill-building and internships into their academic programs. Mr. Watson has taught Business Communication at Westfield State and Western New England universities and recently completed the Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency certificate program at GCC.

“GCC is pleased to have received this federal grant support to strengthen our workforce training programs,” said President Robert Pura. “As an open access college committed to excellence, we have many students for whom work and education go hand in hand. We want to increase training options for students who need jobs right away, and find better ways to keep them engaged in learning so that they can build successful careers.” He added, “In that way, workforce training complements the comprehensive mission that remains central to what community colleges do. Employers want workers who are ready for the job that is here today, and who can solve the problems that appear tomorrow and be ready for the next job up their career ladder. To do that, workers will need good communication and critical thinking skills in addition to short term workforce training.”

 Last fall, GCC and 14 other Massachusetts community colleges were each awarded nearly $1 million in grant funding by the federal Dept. of Labor (DOL) to implement the Massachusetts Community College Workforce Development Transformation Agenda. The federal program is designed to assist states in strengthening workforce training programs at community colleges to create entry points into growth areas of the economy for unemployed and new workers.

Massachusetts targeted five economic sectors in which it aims to build on its strategic advantages and projects strong employment growth in the years ahead: biotechnology, health care, information technology, clean energy and advanced manufacturing. Each community college has created a plan to strengthen its degree and certificate programs to more directly align them with the jobs emerging in the industry sectors present in their regions. For GCC, the primary focus is on Clean Energy and Health Care, with the additional goal of strengthening training pathways to Advanced Manufacturing jobs.

The larger federal goals are to shorten the time to graduation, increase graduation rates and increase job placement success for graduates. At GCC, specific “transformation” projects aimed toward those goals include re-designing the developmental math curriculum to create self-paced learning options that will allow some students to accelerate more rapidly to college-level math. GCC also used WDT grant funding last winter to complete and fit out a new math lab to provide more online instruction and tutoring options.

GCC is also using the WDT grant to contribute to construction of a Clean Energy Instruction Center at the Franklin County Tech School in Montague. This renovated “test house” is being fitted with kitchen and bath appliances and will allow students preparing for energy auditing certification exams to gain practical field experience doing combustion safety testing with real equipment. Other projects are aimed at improving the Certified Nurse Assistant training program, Medical Coding training and Renewable Energy curriculum development, along with staffing to support more internship experience for GCC students.

For more information about the WDT program at GCC, contact Andrew Baker at (413) 775-1878 or .

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