Touting the role two-year colleges play in developing future workforces, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand met with Westchester Community College (WCC) faculty along with business people on ways to strengthen the public-private partnerships and make them more effective for students.
“Community college is an essential part of the economy because they”™re training a workforce,” Gillibrand said Nov. 15 at the college”™s Gateway Center. “It”™s not the same thing as a four-year college. Community college is the future for higher education and educating our workforce for jobs today.”
The Gateway Center on the Valhalla campus serves as a home to the English Language Institute and a hub for business and professional development offering students opportunities to take workshops and learn technical skills.
The college provides workforce training for area businesses including employees at Sleepy Hollow”™s Phelps Memorial Hospital Center, teaching the nurses computer skills.
Nancy Fox, assistant director of education resources at WCC, said, “We trained 663 employees at Phelps through this transition program that teaches them Excel, Word and basic computer skills.”
The training classes were funded partly by Phelps and partly by a State University of New York grant program. The WCC staff taught 60 classes in two months at the hospital”™s computer training room.
As part of the partnership, the hospital is a training site for students interested in learning more about the health profession.
Teresita Wisell, associate dean of continuing education and director of the Gateway Center, said WCC serves as a “vital resource to any number of community partners.”
“We”™re the engine in economic development and we”™re happy to have business partners,” Wisell said. “We”™re about finding ways WCC can leverage the strength of our programs and the businesses.”
Christopher Jones, who is the chief financial officer of Durante Rentals, which has locations in the Bronx, Westchester and Queens, provides workshops for business owners and those interested in starting their own businesses. Tapping his knowledge in co-founding Durante Rentals and working with former bosses who started their own businesses, Jones now teaches workforce-training classes at WCC.
(He recently received the Small Business CFO of the Year Award from the Business Journal.)
“I”™m directing the Grow Conference, which is sponsored by Gateway as a pillar for entrepreneurship,” Jones said. “The focus is on people, places and performances. We want to help entrepreneurs learn what it means to think like a CFO, where to set up their businesses and even budget for their businesses.”
His workshop includes keynote speakers and guest panels.
“Starting with the Gen Xers, now you can get your education and start a company with the resources available like the technology, people, instruction, and curriculum,” Jones said.
Marc Huestis, vice president of construction at Con Edison, said the utility partners with WCC in helping build a curriculum that promotes its STEM initiative, focusing on training students in jobs related to science, technology, engineering and math.
“We promote the enrollment of kids into these programs,” Huestis said. “In general, the county is trying to promote more skills training in technically oriented jobs.”
WCC received $25,000 through SUNY”™s Bright Futures program in July. With the help of Con Edison, the college presented students with career panels, a job fair, meet-and-greet sessions with industry employees and field trips to industry sites.
