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Institution:
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Colorado Mountain College |
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Submitted:
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2002-05-06 |
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Timeline:
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Planned project kickoff date:
Target completion date:
Actual completion date:
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A. Give this Action Project a short title in 10 words or fewer:
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INCREASE WORKFORCE TRAINING
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B. Describe this Action Project's goal in 100 words or fewer:
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This goal is to increase the delivery of workforce training to area businesses and workers to 15% of total FTE.
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C. Identify the single AQIP Category which the Action Project will most affect or impact:
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Primary Category:
Building Collaborative Relationships
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D. Describe briefly your institution's reasons for taking on this Action Project now -- why the project and its goals are high among your current priorities:
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Demand for workforce training exceeds current supply (from the College Board survey).
Computer instruction, often delivered to meet workforce needs, accounts for about 9% of total FTE.
We do not have a good tracking system in place to measure services to business and industry that are non-FTE based.
Because of the rapid growth in the CMC District communities, businesses are under increased pressure to find and employ trained workers.
CMC has an obligation to its communities to help business and industry determine training needs, and to deliver workforce training in the most effective manner for employers and employees.
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E. List the organizational areas - -institutional departments, programs, divisions, or units -- most affected by or involved in this Action Project:
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Workforce Development Task Force, Small Business Development Center, Associate Dean of Workforce Development, Division Directors, Full-time and Community Faculty, Business Office, Business Solutions, The Learning Council, College Council, Institutional Research, Registrar's Office
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F. Name and describe briefly the key organizational process(es) that you expect this Action Project to change or improve:
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Training Faculty and staff to build skills in business training
Strategic Planning
Community partnerships
Identification of stakeholder needs
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G. Explain the rationale for the length of time planned for this Action Project (from kickoff to target completion):
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Regular updates provided to business and community groups, such as Rotary Clubs
Regular monthly agenda items for collegewide decision-making groups
Viewing the college community as another business, and providing performance consulting and training services for faculty and staff
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H. Describe how you plan to monitor how successfully your efforts on this Action Project are progressing:
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CMC participation in local Chambers of Commerce, Economic Development Organizations, community leadership groups, quality of life organizations, etc.
Hosting of business focus groups at each campus
Tracking of contract, credit, and non-credit trainings offered at each campus
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I. Describe the overall "outcome" measures or indicators that will tell you whether this Action Project has been a success or failure in achieving its goals:
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Increase in number of business and industry training sessions
Increase in number of employees served
Development of professional development opportunities (for example, for lawyers, medical professionals)
Ability to deliver consistent quality training programs/products to our communities in a timely manner
Easily accessible database of business training resources to be shared among campuses
Strategic plan for business and industry training in place
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J. Other information (e.g., publicity, sponsor or champion, etc.):
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Train Performance Consultants at each campus to work with local businessesProvide on-demand training for business and industry
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Last Action Project Update: 2006-09-14
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Describe the past year's accomplishments and the current status
of this Action Project. |
Workforce Training that involves partnerships with business and industry has been conducted all year at campuses through instructional supervisors, by Workforce Training Coordinators at various sites, and through the Small Business Development Center and has provided opportunities for lifelong learning and career skill improvement. With increasing workforce training needs, this continues to be a key goal for CMC. A good portion of the workforce training over the past year was conducted in Rifle because of the oil/gas industry, which has generously supported CMCís efforts with its monetary contributions and through the efforts of Workforce Coordinators. The number of employees trained increased from 344 in 2002-2003 to over 720 by June, 2006 (treated as noncredit, this translates to 37 FTE, this comes to no where near our target of 15% of total FTE). However, this does not include training at the campuses and the Small Business Development Center. As of January 2006, we have begun to have all workforce training entered into our database to ensure better tracking.
Business advisory groups are regularly used to determine training needs and a survey of area employers was conducted in the past year and the results suggested employers were very satisfied with the training their employees received. A 3-year cycle of community surveys will be completed in 2007. Based on Aspen Campusí recent community survey, improved work performance is one of the main ways CMC helps residents. In addition, Vail Eagle Valley has a 3 year commitment from the Beaver Creek Resort Company of $20,000 per year in scholarship funding for up to 10 culinary students who choose a restaurant at the Beaver Creek Resort. This is an investment in workforce development for the restaurant/resort industry. Vailís cafeteria plan of training and educational programming has been developed and training has begun. At Rifle Campus, Process Technology is being offered for incumbent workers in the energy industry. The campus has received generous financial and advisory support from the oil/gas industry. Rifle has also moved welding equipment to Parachute in order to better serve the energy industry. And in response to industry needs, additional welding testing equipment has been purchased and they are now beginning issuing welding certification services. A new state-of-the-art campus is being built in Rifle for 2007, so CMC can better meet its workforce training needs for the area. The President has created taskforces that are providing district-wide recommendations for the further development of allied health programs (e.g. Nursing, Radiology Tech.) and workforce training to increase responsiveness to community needs.
Based on this information and other data regarding community profiles, job vacancies, etc., the projectís focus became to establish the current baseline for workforce training, as well as to define the process for campus level contribution for business and industry training, customized contract training, continuing education units (CEUs) and professional education by fall 2006. The Associate Dean of Workforce Development and others have led the redefining of this project. We are also now participating in the National Benchmark Project and will soon have benchmarks for business and industry that will help us to further refine this project and our target. After this summerís Administrative Leadership Team retreat, where about 50 College representatives brainstormed about our AQIP and the direction of the College with our President and a continuous improvement facilitator, we are working on becoming more systematic on how we target areas for improvement, as well as use continuous improvement tools and data. |
| B. Describe how the institution involved
people in work on this Action Project. |
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Although the campuses were involved to varying degrees in increasing workforce training, as was the Small Business Development Center, much progress was made on this project through the efforts of our 2 Workforce Coordinators. We are still moving towards greater involvement of the College Community through the Workforce Training and Professional Development group. The campuses and these other groups all work with business/industry advisory groups to help determine what trainings need to be offered. Our community surveys (Most recently for Aspen, with Timberlineís in progress) are also helping determine how CMC can meet the educational and training needs of its communities. Continuous improvement related initiatives reflected one of the four college wide strategic goals. Training in using continuous improvement tools has been provided fairly regularly, with a quality facilitator training the Administrative Leadership Team this summer. This representative leadership responded (both at the training and in a subsequent survey) very enthusiastically to moving forward in an even more systematic and focused way. Strategic Planning that is tied to Board Ends, the College goals and AQIP goals is becoming more systematic and data based all the way to employee goals through our new employee evaluation system, with increasing workforce training targeted throughout. Increasing workforce training became one of the four College strategic planning goals. |
| C. Describe your planned next steps for
this Action Project. |
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The Workforce Training and Professional Development group and others are still working on using our database to document all the workforce training efforts, so we can avoid duplication of effort, as well as get a more complete picture of the various trainings. Since, one of our 2 workforce coordinators left recently, a taskforce that has been studying how we currently do workforce training will be bringing forth recommendations for improvement in the coming weeks. The allied health related taskforces will provide recommendations soon for the development of programs/trainings that will better respond to community needs. At our leadership meetings in the coming weeks, we hope to streamline processes for this project. Following the completion of this refinement process, the project details will be updated on the AQIP Website. |
| D. Describe any "effective practice(s)"
that resulted from your work on this Action Project. |
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With the involvement CMC Workforce Coordinators have had with business and industry, CMCís Workforce Training has been increasing steadily. Much of the training in the past year continues to be related to the oil/gas industry, but has also included government employees, retail, and other businesses e.g. Summit County. CMC has been at the forefront of fulfilling these training needs and has been able to capitalize on this opportunity and is currently working on being even more responsive. |
| E. What challenges, if any, are you still
facing in regards to this Action Project? |
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Our efforts with this project have been college wide, but continue to be diffused, so documentation of our real progress for CMC as a whole has been difficult. Due to the various sites being so spread out over Western Colorado, systems thinking, cohesiveness, and balancing consistency versus unique needs across sites and their communities continues to be a challenge. There is increased collaboration and communication, but much progress still needs to be made in this area because initiatives are sometimes followed through at one site than another. We struggle with gaining even greater involvement, since the same people tend to serve on numerous committees. This should improve with the more focused approach with improved assessment and strategic planning (better alignment of budgeting and planning processes) currently underway. The CMC culture is just beginning to move to data based decision-making and creating a culture of evidence and continuous improvement. Pulling together campus level training and other training through our Workforce Coordinators and Small Business Development Center has been a challenge. We have just begun to put together a more complete picture of college wide efforts with respect to Workforce Training. |
| F. If you would like to discuss the possibility
of AQIP providing you help to stimulate progress on this action
project, explain your need(s) here and tell us who to contact and
when? |
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At this time weíre progressing in the area of Workforce Training. Weíll likely seek some guidance during our 2007 AQIP Quality Check-Up. |