Housatonic Community College is pushing ahead with a new program to help businesses in Fairfield and New Haven counties design programs for their workers.
Through a new Strategic Solutions Group, the Bridgeport community college will offer both workplace needs assessment and customized training designed to meet organizational needs beginning this month.
The move comes even as Housatonic Community College cut enrollment by more than 220 students entering this fall, or 3.6 percent, the result of cuts in the state budget. Statewide, community college full-time enrollment fell for the first time in 13 years by 7.4 percent; Norwalk Community College saw full-time enrollment decline more than 6 percent, but offset those losses with gains in part-time students.
The training program could provide a new revenue stream for Housatonic Community Colleges, though it is offering diagnostic services for free. More importantly, it could help the school cement relationships with area employers, which could benefit both the institution and its students.
“The key feature of this service is needs diagnosis,” said Gary Kecskés, dean of community outreach, in a prepared statement. “Our organizational specialists will meet first with prospective clients to learn as much as possible about their operations and the workforce challenges they face. Then, the HCC specialists will develop an appropriate, customized response to address a client”™s unique employee development needs.”
Housatonic will help identify any sources of supplementary funding that can be used to implement its recommendations. Training services are provided on a fee-for-service basis that the school says will be competitive. Training curricula includes:
Ӣ effective management and supervision;
Ӣ workplace issues;
Ӣ communications skills, including presentation and negotiation techniques;
Ӣ customer service and outreach;
”¢Â desktop software; and
Ӣ shop-floor technical programs.
After Connecticut community colleges were initially shut out of $500 million in U.S. government grants to train laid off workers for new careers, the office of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was subsequently informed that Gateway Community College in New Haven would share in the funding, getting $2.7 million.
The grants are part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training initiative, for which the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act furnished $2 billion over four years from the U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Education. In the Northeast, community colleges in New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire received $20 million each; and colleges in New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont booked smaller amounts.
As part of the Obama administration”™s proposed American Jobs Act, community colleges nationally would receive another $5 billion to modernize facilities, and to train unemployed workers. The White House estimates that could result in $38 million for Connecticut”™s dozen community colleges in the coming fiscal year, if passed by Congress.
The same bill would provide more than $500 million to help municipalities retain teachers and modernize schools in their district. And the centerpieces of the American Jobs Act include a one-half reduction in the tax on the first $5 million in payroll, with 70,000 Connecticut companies standing to benefit; and investment in infrastructure that could yield more than $400 million for Connecticut.
Editor”™s note: This article was updated from an earlier version that appears in the Oct. 10 print edition to reflect Gateway Community College”™s funding.
