With the explosion of new technologies into the global market,
students and those who have obtained degrees face an increasingly
competitive future.
To address this problem, plans are underway for the development
of Corporate Connections, a concept for a new workforce training
center which will provide specialized training for corporate
employees that they cannot get at a college.
The concept, sponsored by local community colleges and the
City of Livermore, should be ready for approval by the board
of trustees of the college district at a meeting on October 26
to be held here at LPC.
An innovative brainchild of Dr. Barbara Mertes, Vice Chancellor
for Institutional Planning and Facilities for the college district,
Corporate Connections will utilize the very latest technology
in its training center. According to Dr. Mertes, it will be a
“new collaboration with business, government, industry and
other institutions of higher learning.” The classes will
be Internet-savvy with “smart” classrooms designed
to encourage multimedia, interactive, instructional delivery
systems.
“Distance education is the way education is headed,”
said Lynn Carstensen, president of the board of trustees for
the college district. “If we don’t want to be a part
of the front run of education, we need to understand that we’re
letting an educational future slip by.”According to an operational
profile submitted to the board of trustees at a meeting on September
21, the goals of the project are:
1) to solve the problems of duplication of efforts, increased
costs, and loss of data which arise from independently developed
training programs;
2) to create and maintain a data bank of information on all
aspects of high technology training, permitting rapid and efficient
development of sophisticated training programs tailored to specific
industry needs;