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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT ANITA GLINIECKI AT 203-332-5061 HCC OFFERING NEW DEGREE PROGRAM IN INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGYBusiness Community Played Key Role in Development BRIDGEPORT— Starting this fall, Housatonic Community College will offer an associate degree in industrial technology that features a strong online component. The curriculum for the degree, said Academic Dean Anita Gliniecki, was developed by an advisory committee drawn from area businesses, business associations, and high schools with the needs of business in mind. “It was market-driven education at its best,” she said. “We at the college listened as business and industry told us what they needed and put together a program to meet those needs.” The program is already receiving kudos from the business community. “The program will educate students in the skills businesses need today,” said Kathy Saint, president of the Bridgeport-based Schwerdtle Stamp Company. “We need to have students come to us who have knowledge beyond what they learn in high school. Manufacturing is much more sophisticated today.” Keeping up with the dizzying changes in manufacturing equipment and methods can be difficult for smaller companies and their employees, said Kris Lorch, president of the Bridgeport-based Alloy Engineering. “This program will enable us to keep up with these changes,” she said. Offering the program is the latest in a long list of projects the college has undertaken as part of its partnership with area businesses, said HCC President Janis M. Hadley. “Our goal is to meet the research and education needs of all constituencies in South Central and Southwestern Connecticut, while acting as a good public citizen,” she said. “The business community is one such constituency.” The end result of this commitment, she said, has been projects such as HCC’s downtown revitalization efforts, workforce development programs and the Housatonic Research Institute, which offers strategic planning data to businesses free of charge. The program is particularly valuable to manufacturers, Lorch said, because the courses are tightly focused on manufacturing. This heightens the exposure students will have to this field. Lorch, who noted that six of her 40 employees have already signed up for these new courses, said the ability to take classes online makes it attractive to prospective students. “They don’t have to be in a specific place at a specific time to take the course,” she said. “They can do the course work at midnight, early in the morning or on weekends.” The degree program is designed to give students the basic skill sets that area businesses need, Gliniecki said. These include skills in areas such as technology, management, supervision, and problem-solving, along with an understanding of economics and the economy. “The program is designed to prepare students for two career tracks,” said HCC Academic Coordinator William Griffin. “One would be to transfer to a four-year college to earn a bachelor’s degree in industrial technology while the other would be to go right into the workplace in a manufacturing job or staff position.” In the former case, he said, students would begin their careers on the shop floor and gradually move up through the ranks to supervision and management. In the latter, he said, they would move into manufacturing support areas such as marketing, production control, and human resources, or into engineering. “To prepare students for this work, the program balances the theoretical with the practical,” he said. “In addition to courses, the program includes opportunities for students to receive hands-on training through the college’s business partnerships.” This training benefits the businesses as well, Griffin said. “It gives them the opportunity to see first-hand how the students perform,” he said. “This gives them the first shot at hiring the best students.” To make the courses accessible to the most students, the program includes a number of online courses, Griffin said. This summer, the program offered an on online course in English Composition while, in the fall, online courses in intermediate algebra and technical drafting are planned. Thanks to the help of the Metal Manufacturers Education and Training Alliance (METAL), HCC received a National Science Foundation grant to develop and implement the online courses. Courses are expected to fill up fast, Gliniecki said. “I would strongly encourage students to come in early and complete the application process to ensure a slot in one of these courses,” she said. Open registration for the fall semester will be held at the downtown Bridgeport campus Wednesday, August 3, 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.; Thursday, August 4, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Monday, August 22, 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday, August 23, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Wednesday, August 24, 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. and Thursday, August 25, 10 a.m.-noon, with special registration session for senior citizens and high school partnership students to be held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Classes start Friday, August 26. The industrial technology program, Dr. Hadley said, is another example of how HCC is more than a traditional community college. “We do more than give people the tools they need to build a better future in the regional economy,” she said. “We work with businesses to create jobs for our students while contributing to the vitality of that economy.” Anson C. Smith
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