MCC Economic & Workforce Development Center: Impact Report 2015-17

Vice President’s Office: ACHIEVING ECONOMIC IMPACT Dear colleagues and students:

As we move into the sixth year of the economic development and innovative workforce services division, our objectives have not changed – to better understand our regional economy; continue building a strong regional workforce capability at MCC; and to seek and develop new and meaningful collaborations with community and industry partners to move our workforce forward. Now is a perfect time to reflect on where we’ve been, and focus on what lies ahead. A few key accomplishments. JPMorgan Chase awarded us $320,000 to create a Middle-Skills Bridge program, support accelerated certificate programs, and enhance labor market intelligence efforts. The aim is to increase the pool of qualified workers available to employers in high-demand middle-skills workforce clusters where skill gaps have been shown to exist within the Finger Lakes economy. The Middle-Skills Bridge program ensures participants are academically prepared prior to their enrollment in one of MCC’s accelerated certificate programs. As part of this effort, we have also created a one-stop online resource designed to promote regional investments targeted at closing the middle-skill gaps in the workforce and provide a strategic framework for addressing the gaps, such as providing educational requirements for specific careers. The beta 1.0 version of the website launched in early 2016 ( www.mcclmi.com ) was developed in collaboration with our Regional Advisory Board including post- secondary educators, secondary educators, workforce developers, economists, economic developers, industry associations, and community partners. Forward progress. We began as a collection of individual departments and professional services, now we function as an integrated team. Our purpose is to make a positive economic impact in the Finger Lakes region, and our greatest power is in what we achieve collaboratively. With innovation at the forefront, each area of the division contributes in its own way. Our diverse organizational capabilities include labor market measurement and analysis, industry engagement, flexible credit and non-credit programming, and strategic grants development. We will continue to leverage local labor market data to address skills gaps in the regional economy. Using innovative education and training, we create skilled workers aligned with local workforce needs. This is how we work together to achieve economic impact. We develop the individual. With the benefit of industry engagement, we guide individuals down a career pathway. Guidance begins with high school partnerships, early college programming like Rochester P-TECH and dual-enrollment sequences, then post-secondary degree options, such as applied-STEM degree and certificate programs and finally, career spanning professional development. We serve industry. Working with our industry partners, we identify and train workers that regional companies need to stay competitive. We support industries with custom designed programs to meet employer specific needs. Through community partnerships, advisory boards, and creating educational and workforce pipelines for employers, we invest in our region’s economy. Innovation is at the heart of what we do. We align and inform programming through local labor market analysis to adapt our solutions to current workforce needs. We create a qualified 21 st century worker faster, with higher success rates for employers. Everyone benefits and our economy thrives. Together, we move our community’s workforce forward. Sincerely,

Together, we move our community’s workforce forward.

Todd M. Oldham, M.B.A., Ed. D. Vice President | Economic and Workforce Development

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