Action Project • Improve Workforce Training & Professional Development

A workforce subcommittee was formed in February, 2007 with the charge to maximize CMC's effectiveness in meeting workforce and community members' personal enrichment needs. The committee was to recommend a vision for workforce development college-wide and recommend optimum structuring within our organization. After internal and external surveys, review of a consultant report and literature review of best practices the following recommendations came forward: 1)Convert the present vacant Workforce Training Coordinator position into a Dean for Business & Industry Services position that reports directly to the Chief Learning Officer (raises position); 2)Revenue and Workforce FTE will be credited to the relevant campus to avoid a sense of competition; 3) Set up a cost center to track revenue and enrollment as evidence of value to the College and communities we serve. As it grows and prospers, additional staffing and support should follow; 4) Identify existing positions that can serve as the Workforce Training Managers at each of the seven campus locations - as funding becomes available, make these positions a funding prioirty and promote this work as integral to our overall mission. We are currently proceeding on action on this recommendations starting with the opening of the Dean of Workforce position.

In your description of accomplishments you have identified a number of tasks that have been completed. You have identified the creation of a new Dean position and you state: " We are currently proceeding on action on this recommendations starting with the opening of the Dean of Workforce position." You need to better define this statement by describing what implementation steps have been taken place in regards to this position. Many of your other accomplishments seem to include ideas about what the next steps will be. As you continue on, keep in view that AQIP Category #8 includes Planning for Continuous Improvement. In order to strengthen your review of accomplishments really need more specificity as to what has transpired as a result of these recommendations. I think tangible activities and specific actions help to better define accomplishments of an Action Plan.

The Subcommittee was composed of 5 individuals representing 4 campuses who then posed eight questions to all college sites and three questions to eight other community college. In addition, all instructional supervisors and faculty members were surveyed about workforce needs and ability to meet those needs. Highlighted observations from these surveys include: Workforce training fall to the lowest priority with many instructional supervisors due to workload; Instructional supervisors and workforce trainers overlapping in efforts; Lack of resources in place for external pursuite of Workforce opportunities; need to develop a consistent CMC way (or brand) of serving and providing solutions to business and industry, we need to have a knowledgeable leader to standardize practices across the college and keep us cutting-edge; to build credibility, workforce development needs to be connected at a high level within the college structure; efforts at some of our campuses demonstrate a mother lode of opportunities for customized programs, open programs and online programs; we need people who know this business and know our local communities; we need to position workforce development such that it has equal value with traditional academic programming.

Your involvement describes 5 members of a committee representing all 7 campuses and all relevant departments. Have these committee members had any discussions with the regional campuses? Were there any other faculty and community meetings to further discuss these issues? If you are concerned with Work Force requirements I would think you need to have Community Business and Industry representatives, at least in an advisory or a needs assessment providers. AQIP Category #9 address Collaboration and Partnerships. Keep this in focus as you move forward. In order to position your college as a workforce provider you really need to involve the communities and allow them to participate in the discussions. From these discussions you can then develop additional specifications for the Action Project implementation. The 5 member steering committee can be charged with organizing and gather all the data and information and then become the communications link to the college campuses and the community resources.

Presented the recommendations listed in A. to our Board of Trustees and to our College Council who have endorsed the recommendations. We are currently moving forward on those recommendations.

Your next steps really do not delineate what has to happen in order to accomplish the state Action Plan. Presenting to the College Council and Trustees are an important next step. You need to be thinking about beyond this limited audience. How are you going to implement these recommendations? Who needs to be involved with this process? Who will assist and monitor the progress? What are the specific tasks needed to be accomplished next? All of these questions need to be considered and answers delineated in order to move on with your Action Plan.

We did a "Road Trip" visiting each of our campuses and personally interviewing Campus Deans, Instructional Supervisors and faculty. This was very eye-opening and we quickly established effectiveness gaps in meeting our communities' educational needs.

You identify that you offered a Road Trip to the regional campuses, this sounds like an outstanding Effective Practice. As mentioned throughout this review, you need to be involving the communities beyond campus and business and industry representatives. If you would share more details on what was presented and how the discussions were handled in each of the regional campuses, you will be able to better see what the components of Effective Practices needs to contain. This type of targeted communications will positively move your action project forward.

Initial buy-in for designating individuals at each campus to potentially absorb Workforce Training responsiblities along with current duties until we establish the value and are able to justify more resources toward workforce staffing.

The initial buy in from staff at the regional campuses is a good observation. I would think there may be additional challenges that need to be identified. Money to fund the program and money to support the changes to staffing and any organizational changes. You mention early in your statement that money is not budgeted for any of these changes. Therefore, here it could be identified as a potential challenge to the successful completion of this Action Plan. What about the buy in from the Trustees and senior administrative staff, are they in agreement for this project? Are they supporting and helping to lead the charge? Or are they just following along passively. This too, could become a major roadblock in achieving the changes. As mentioned above, what about the community as a whole? Are they supportive, is there a perceived need? Or is it only coming from the steering committee.

You have not requested any assistance or onsite visit from the AQIP team. Reviewer 9821