... VIEWPOINT
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reconcile their differences in favor of responding to the needs of the unemployed.
As president of LCCC, I have witnessed this progress firsthand. LCCC is
building a new system to better serve
transitioning adults, and our efforts
have earned us recognition as the
winner of the 2010 Best Practice for
One-Stops in Ohio. LCCC’s Stimulate
Your Career program, which pairs unemployed workers with new job-training
programs, received a grant from the
federal Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education. The grant has
been influential in helping our college
recruit, enroll, retain, and graduate transitioning adults committed to advancing
their career and job opportunities.
This effort was not born overnight,
but out of partnerships between postsecondary institutions, county government, and private-sector organizations
as part of the Lorain County Growth
Partnership ( www.lcgp.net).
Our work shed light on three dimensions of innovation and integration credited with improving our local economy.
1. Full integration of LCCC career development and employment services
with our local One-Stop, the Employment net Work. This year we opened
the Employment net Work@LCCC as
a satellite center with services that
complement, not replace, those at the
primary One-Stop.
2. We also launched Adult Transition
Services@LCCC as an integrated
approach to student support services.
Collaboration between the employ-
ment and career services staff with
those in financial and enrollment
services is foundational to this
approach. Engagement with tran-
sitioning adults begins with their
commitment to setting career, educa-
tional, and employment goals through
a set of personalized services and
online tools. Once the adult student
has declared his or her goal, support
services are deployed to ensure their
success. The model is intended to
serve adults choosing career change,
advancement, or increased pay in
current jobs as their educational goal.
credit certificates (along a career pathway to an associate degree) for dislocated workers.
All were funded and proved successful for adults, mostly age 40 and up
with limited college experience. These
students were placed in cohorts and
assisted in every phase of student
services, including career discovery,
academic advisement, financial,
services, assessments, tutoring, credentialing, preparation for job search, and
subsequent placement.
Though I am proud of our accomplishments at LCCC, we still have much to
do. Part of our federal grant requires us
to work with the American Association
of Community Colleges and to network
with other community colleges that
also are working on how, in partnership
with their respective workforce systems,
to achieve greater success in enrolling,
retaining, graduating, and placing transitioning adults into career jobs. We invite
you to participate in this network. If
you are interested, we hope you will join
the cause. Good luck to us all.
Roy ChuRCh is president of Lorain County
Community College in Lorain, Ohio.
Wallace State Community College is widely recognized for its tradition of excellence,
comprehensive educational offerings and unique opportunities. WSCC enrolls
approximately 6,000 students and offers more than 50 programs of study in academic,
health and technical programs in addition to an unlimited number of transfer options. A
blend of modern and old, Wallace State is a charming campus spanning 250 acres, with
41 buildings located in Hanceville, AL.
The college would like to announce the following job opening:
Vice President of Administrative Services
To view the job vacancy announcement and application procedure for this position, please
visit our web site at http://www.wallacestate.edu/employment/faculty-positions.html
Deadline for application packets is
January 7, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.
Wallace State Community College is an AA/EEO Employer.
December 2010/January 2011 COMMUNITY COLLEGE JOURNAL 19
