• Blue Ridge Community College (BRCC)
  
  Through the VCCS agreement with Boston Reed College, BRCC’s Workforce Services and Continuing Education (WSCE) division is offering Phlebotomy this fall, with 21 students enrolled.  Following completion of the classroom portion of the course, students will be placed into an externship to gain practical experience.  Because students need to show proof of CPR for Healthcare Providers, WSCE also offered a CPR course which resulted in 23 additional enrollments.  In addition to providing workforce training for the healthcare industry, this course has produced significant enrollments and revenue for BRCC.   WSCE used Institutes of Excellence funds to purchase radio and newspaper ads to promote the program.  Approximately 40 people attended an orientation session that explained the program.  WSCE plans to offer Phlebotomy again in spring 2010 as well as Boston Reed’s Clinical Medical Assistant Program.  These health care programs benefit students who are looking for viable, recession-proof careers, the healthcare industry that needs skilled employees and the college in its commitment to provide job training in high growth areas.
  
  Disney Institute
  
  WSCE sponsored its second Disney Institute program during 2009, Disney Keys to People Management, which attracted 79 participants from various area companies.   The decision to offer a second program this year was based on the enthusiastic response to the Disney Keys to Excellence program held in early May.  During the day-long session of Disney Keys to People Management, two Disney Institute facilitators led participants in exploring techniques Disney uses to select, train, retain, and communicate with employees.  Topics included Organizational Culture, Selecting Right-Fit Talent, Training the Culture, Communicating to Inform and Inspire, and Creating an Environment of Care.  One fortunate participant won a package to attend the Disney Institute, worth almost $4,000 and including admission to a 3.5 day Disney Institute program at the Walt Disney Resort in Florida, lodging, and a three-day theme park ticket.  On October 1, Disney facilitators presented Keys to People Management to 45 college employees, customized especially for BRCC.  Sponsors for this event included Shenandoah Valley Society for Human Resource Management; an anonymous WSCE supporter; Mrs. Rowe’s Catering; KSB Enterprise Solutions, LLC; Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport; Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce; Simple Expressions; and Stonewall Jackson Hotel, with support from the BRCC Educational Foundation.  Disney Institute programs are unique in the world of training, and, since, the premiere of its first professional development program in 1986, these programs have attracted millions of business leaders.
   
  
• Community College Workforce Alliance (CCWA)
  
  CCWA Partners to Offer High-Demand Course
  
  The Community College Workforce Alliance (CCWA) has expanded its partnership with the Employment Transition Center (Capital Regional Workforce Partnership) to offer medical billing and coding.  The daytime class is offered at the Center and another evening class is being held at CCWA’s Featherstone location.  Twenty students are enrolled in the classes, and participants will be able to sit for national certification exams upon completion.
  
  CCWA is partnering with the Center to offer this high-demand healthcare class to dislocated workers. The American Hospital Association (AHA) recently reported that “approximately 18 percent of medical billing and coding positions remain unfilled due to the lack of qualified candidates.”  According to the United States Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the position is considered one of the ten fastest growing allied health occupations.
  
  Employment Transition Center Director, Leontine Jameson, says, “The increase of unemployment among workers who are already seasoned professionals, many who already possess advanced post-secondary degrees, amplifies the need for short-term intensive programs that can enhance present skill sets as well as provide new skills -- and that can occur in the shortest period of time to move people into new employment as quickly as possible.”  She explained, “The Employment Transition Center has worked with CCWA to seek programs that not only develop skills quickly, but can lead to industry-recognized credentials that are in-demand and in-step with the emerging economy.”
  
  
• Dabney S. Lancaster Community College (DSLCC)
  
  EQUIPMENT DONATION – Carter Machinery of Salem recently donated the use of two pieces of equipment, a CAT bulldozer and a CAT log skidder, to the Dabney S. Lancaster Community College Forestry Technology program. Making the presentation to DSLCC President Dr. Richard Teaff was Richard  Church, Carter customer service representative. From left: DSLCC forestry students Bobby Wright, George Hanke, Judson Collie and John Grey; Milt McGrady, forestry instructor; student Larry Harrup; Dr. Teaff; Church; Gary Keener, DSLCC Vice President of Continuing Education and Workforce Services; forestry students Max Harris, R.J. Stevens and April Garrison; and Earl Dodrill, DSLCC Workforce Services Coordinator.
  
  
• Germanna Community College (GCC)
  
  NEW!  An exciting Study Tour to Paris, Florence, and Rome is offered through the Center for Workforce and Community Education.  It's offered in conjunction with the new non-credit course, "The Art and Architecture of Paris, Florence, and Rome."
   
  The Study Tour is instructor-led and is scheduled for May 17 - May 28, 2010.  Developed for adult students in Visual and Decorative Design, it's a wonderful art-themed tour of three of the most popular and influential European cities, and offers a real-world educational experience.  You’ll participate in guided tours of renowned art centers and many awe-inspiring architectural wonders.  Included is a hands-on art workshop in Paris, the City of Light.  Participants will discover new and different cultures, experience an emphasis on global education, and return with a greater international curiosity.  Contact us at GCCWorkforce@Germanna.edu for more details.  And click here for more info.
  
  
• Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC)
  
  LFCC celebrates national customer service week in October by hosting The Customer Service Conference entitled “The Napkin, The Melon, and The Monkey”.    The conference, held October 7th, was based on the popular new book by the same title written by Barbara Burke.  The shortest route to high customer satisfaction is to make your company a great place to work. When the people who deliver service genuinely enjoy what they do, it shows.  Dozens of participants from local businesses in the Lord Fairfax Service region enjoyed the conference and a complimentary copy of the book.
  
  
• Paul D. Camp Community College (PDCCC)
  
  Lift trucks: help students learn to lift
  
  There’s a lot of old fashioned thinking among old material handlers. For example, many lift truck makers and sellers have always seen hoists, cranes and overhead conveyors as competitive products. They bought into a huge case of “Either/Or.”
   
  A new generation of material handlers needs to avoid inheriting that mindset, and Scott Miller is working hard to intercept it. He’s v.p. of operations for Harrington Hoist and chairman of The Overhead Alliance. The Alliance is among The Crane Manufacturers Association of America (CMAA), the Hoist Manufacturers Institute (HMI) and the Monorail Manufacturers Association (MMA) of the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA). The goal is to reintroduce their technologies to a new generation of engineers. He says advancements in dual speed and infinitely variable speed controls make overhead lifting technologies reliable partners for lift trucks in many applications.
   
  “Also radio remote controls are inexpensive and reliable today and they allow users to move away from a load,” he told me. “We as an industry have to prove an ROI.”
   
  These are the kinds of lessons best taught through experience. My friend Colonel Alan Will has made such education a personal mission. I thought of him when I heard about the Overhead Alliance’s mission. I’ll tell you why. Then you’ll have an opportunity to do something amazing.
   
  I got to know Col. Will a few years ago when he was Chief of Staff, 2d Marine Logistics Group, at Camp Lejeune, NC, and then recruited him as a member of Modern’s Editorial Advisory Board. Today he and his wife live in Virginia and he’s getting involved in a recruitment program of his own.
   
  Col. Will is working with Paul D. Camp Community College in Suffolk, VA to develop a warehouse training program. The goal: to provide a trained workforce for the distribution centers under construction in that region.  His challenge: the need to equip a warehouse laboratory.  He found a new facility with 8,000-12,000 sq ft, and two dock doors, and it has access to a decent transportation infrastructure. He’s hoping for grant money to rent it, but that’s a separate issue. He’s also recruiting volunteers to donate materials handling equipment. He sent a wish list to the MHIA, hoping the Association could convince member firms to donate. He’ll need it soon, as the first 3-credit-hour course will be offered next January.
   
  Lift truck training will be part of the education, including operation of counterbalanced lift trucks and reach trucks.  He asked me if there were other kinds of equipment he and his team should be introducing to students. As I implied at the top of this blog, I think teaming overhead handling equipment with lift trucks would make excellent use of the facility they’ll eventually rent.
   
  If you’re in a position to help Col. Will and the students he’s hoping to turn into working materials handlers, he’d love to hear from you. Can you reach into your network for a reach truck? Have you overheard colleagues talk about a spare overhead handling device? Let Col. Will know.
  
  
• Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC)
  
  Tech Tour
  
  Last week, 250 middle and high school students from Charlottesville and surrounding counties visited 50 area businesses to see first-hand the role that technology plays in the workplace. Sponsored by the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council in conjunction with Piedmont Virginia Community College, the annual Tech Tour is aimed at helping students envision themselves as technology employees, professionals and entrepreneurs. Businesses represented a wide array of career areas and included the Charlottesville Intelligent Transportation Center, NBC29, PGx Health, Sperry Marine, Virginia Diodes, and Inova Solutions.
   
  Students met at PVCC for an engineering challenge before the tour, and were welcomed to the school by faculty and staff, who served as tour guides for the event. In between stops on the tour, students discussed pathways from high school to careers represented on the tour, and were challenged to consider how PVCC could help them reach their goals. 
  
  The Tech Tour is on Facebook! Visit our page to see photos and find information on scholarships, internships, and more.
  
  
  PVCC to greatly expand job-training program
  
  Piedmont Virginia Community College announced Tuesday morning that it has begun work on a facility that will greatly expand the college’s job training for out-of-work Charlottesville-area residents.
  
  “This is critically important today,” said PVCC President Frank Friedman, noting that the region has seen its unemployment rate nearly double in the past year. “We must put unemployed Central Virginians back to work.”
  
  PVCC’s new workforce development center will be located in the former Thomas Jefferson Visitors Center on Route 20 that was operated by Monticello and the Charlottesville-Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau. Piedmont had hoped to receive the state’s approval to take ownership of the building in late April, but the project faced months of delays while the state conducted a legal and technical review of the project.
  
  College officials had hoped to begin offering classes in the facility this fall, but now it won’t open until March 1.
  
  Valerie Palamountain, PVCC’s dean of workforce services, said the new center will allow the college to expand its capacity by six-fold. Once fully operational, she said, PVCC will be able to increase its number of workforce training students from 5,000 to 30,000.
  
  “We’re looking to provide better service to the community and to industry,” she said.
  
  The college’s division of workforce services currently has one classroom for instruction. The new facility will have five classrooms, a conference room and offices.
  
  The extra space, college officials said, will allow PVCC to ramp up its workforce training offerings in the fields of software applications, information technology, IT security, health care, viticulture, construction and more.
  
  “Our purpose here is to train Central Virginians to be successful in the workforce,” Palamountain said.
  
  PVCC has grown increasingly crowded, Friedman said, as it deals with record-breaking student enrollment. This fall, he said, PVCC has 1,300 more students taking courses for credit than it did four years. In other words, he said, PVCC is squeezing many more students into the same amount of classroom space.
  
  The facility, located down the hill from Piedmont’s main campus, is undergoing limited renovations and upgrades, such as new paint and new carpet. All told, the project is estimated to cost up to $500,000. Half of the money, Friedman said, comes from PVCC’s state tax allocation and half from private donors. The project’s fundraising is roughly two-thirds finished, he said.  
  
  
• Rappahannock Community College (RCC)
  
  Rappahannock Community College is pleased to announce the new Vice president for Workforce Development is Jason Perry.  Jason currently works for Gloucester County Schools and has partnered with RCC on several projects.  Jason will be attending the December conference so please be sure to welcome him and assist him in his new role. 
  
  
• Southside Virginia Community College (SVCC)
  
  SVCC Offers Leadership Solutions Workshop
  
  Southside Virginia Community College is offering Leadership Solutions, a training program to assist area business and industry in developing the best leaders in their business. The program, sponsored by Valley Proteins, Inc., SVCC, and The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, will be offered at the Southside Virginia Higher Education Center in Emporia beginning in late October.  Scholarships are available on a first come, first served basis. 
  
  The program is designed for newly designated supervisors and managers to learn mid-level supervisory skills. Topics include leading vs. managing; delegating; managing time; conflict resolution; solving problems; offering constructive feedback; strategic and tactical planning and how to run effective meetings. Pamela N. Taylor who has 17 years of adult education experience in the area of management at businesses such as Dollar General’s Distribution Center, GAP, Inc., and International Paper, Inc will serve as the instructor.
  
  
• Virginia Highlands Community College (VHCC)
  
  On Thursday, October 1, 2009, Workforce Training & Continuing Education Division at Virginia Highlands Community College hosted forty-five manufacturing and area business leaders at the fourth annual Manufacturer’s Appreciation Luncheon.  Guest speaker for the event was Ms. Diane Thomas, International Trade Manager for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.   Diane shared with the group company-specific reasons why companies should export, important pre-requisites for successful exporting, considerations about exporting, facts to consider about Virginia exports, and resources for getting started.
  
  Following the presentation by Diane, Melinda Leland and Beth Duffield highlighted the overall accomplishments and opportunities of the Workforce Training & Continuing Education Division. Overall the division served a total of 2,865 students in either open enrollment non-credit instruction, open enrollment credit instruction (continuing education), or non-credit customized instruction.
  
  The luncheon wrapped up with a presentation of the Training Partner of the Year Award which was given to Randy Poe, Andy Nowicki ,Jim Copenhaver and Carolyn Powers of Scholle Corporation.  The Training Partner of the Year Award was established in March of 2006.  It was designed to recognize a company each year who has worked closely with the division by promoting innovation of new training ideas and utilization of the community college and its resources.
  
  During the 2008-2009 fiscal year, Scholle contracted with the Division of Workforce Training & Cont. Education to facilitate 16 classes in 12 topic areas resulting in the training of 125 Scholle employees and 5,800 contact hours of training.  Class topics included Excel, Essentials of Leadership, Working as a Team, Resolving Conflict, Leading Change, Team Building and 6 classes that made up a Non-Credit Certificate in Electricity.  Additionally, we worked with Scholle to proctor and score 96 individual Workkeys assessments which resulted in the awarding of 14 Career Readiness Certificates. 
  
  Finally, from an innovation point of view, Jim Copenhaver, Technical Manager for Scholle Corporation, partnered with the Division of Workforce Training & Cont. Education in a $15,000 Institutes of Excellence Grant provided by the Virginia Community College System.  The grant provided funds for the development of a non-credit curriculum for a high demand occupational field.    Scholle was interested in upgrading the electrical skills and knowledge of their maintenance employees.  With these funds, the division worked with adjunct instructor Lewis Loflin to develop six non-credit classes that could be used not only by Scholle, but any other manufacturing facility who need this type of training. 
  
  
• Virginia Western Community College (VWCC)
  
  Virginia Western Community College Holds Third Annual Technology Summit
  
  More than 200 area high school and community college students took the opportunity to learn more about potential careers in engineering; science; and technology on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at Virginia Western Community College’ Third Annual Technology Summit. These students were able to explore a diverse array of career pathways ranging from HVAC and robotics to rapid prototyping and web design. Business partners had displays set up to encourage interest in the fields of advanced technology; engineering technology; integrated technology; information technology and environmental science. To promote interaction between students and the representative businesses; students were given ‘passports’ to be completed by asking career-related questions at each display. High school students completing the passport became eligible for high-tech door prizes and VWCC students were eligible for a grade incentive of 10 points on an assignment.
  
  The purpose of the Technology Summit is to encourage business; industry, education and community partners to educate high school and community college students on the skills and knowledge needed for success, especially in the areas of technology and advanced technology. For the second year, VWCC had international visitors attend the Summit, when four Virginia Tech doctoral students from Zambia toured the interactive stations and spoke with faculty and business partners to gain insights on ways to bring business and education together once they return home.
  
  Positive comments were received from students, high school staff and business partners alike.  Some of the business comments mentioned that the Tech Summit was an opportunity to:
  • Relate vital information about our industry and the growth potential in the industry.
  • To introduce students to industries they didn’t know existed
  • Allow people to learn about a company they might not have spoken to otherwise.
  
  To learn more about the Tech Summit, contact Leah Coffman or Terry Drumheller at Virginia Western.
  

System Office Updates

Important Dates to Remember

November 3-4: VCCS Statewide Training for New Manufacturing, Engineering, and Technology (MET) Coaches Community College Workforce Alliance-North Run Center, Richmond, VA
November 6: Registration for the Hire Education conference ends


Want to read more good news in Workforce Development? Check out the Virginia Workforce Network's quarterly newsletter, created by the Virginia Workforce Council.