VaHigherEd.com

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 - 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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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 - 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.

Subscribe to this podcast through a feed
Or listen to this podcast on itunes

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