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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


Three years ago, MCC took the lead on a $14.6 million system-wide SUNY grant application to the US Department of Labor: SUNY Training and Education in Advanced Manufacturing (TEAM).  The proposal promised to train 3,000 dislocated workers and returning veterans across New York for careers in advanced manufacturing, with a focus on machining, plastics, optics, photovoltaics, welding, and mechatronics.

To say that the (lowercase) team at MCC was a bit nervous as it began this project would be a considerable understatement.  They were being asked to roll out and manage a complex, integrated curriculum and training program across 22 community colleges and hundreds of business partners.  They were responsible for a scope of deliverables that were unprecedented.  They had no model to build on—SUNY had never been awarded a grant of this scale, and their funding was coming from one of the most compliance-intensive granting agencies, the US Department of Labor.   Despite, or perhaps energized by, these challenges, a cross-college internal team, led by Director Cortney Harris, and a cross-system external coordinating council, including VP Todd Oldham, set out to assure this grant would be successful.

At Monday’s SUNY Board of Trustees meeting, I had the opportunity to present on SUNY Training and Education in Advanced Manufacturing (TEAM) <
https://manufacturingminds.com/> .  SUNY TEAM did not meet its deliverables: it exceeded them.  To date, over 4,200 students have enrolled in credit and non-credit programs related to advanced manufacturing; over 550 have already completed.  Faculty working on SUNY TEAM have created seven new programs and revised five more to align with industry expectations.  More than 300 employers have partnered with SUNY TEAM, assuring that graduates are able to move from their community college program into a career pathway.  In fact, given the high demand in some areas, students are even being hired before completion.

SUNY TEAM serves students like Patricio, who entered the workforce immediately after high school.  Now a father of two, he was laid-off from his factory job and came to MCC’s accelerated precision tooling program.  In six months, he earned a credit-bearing certificate and a job.  Significantly, Patricio’s certificate is a “stackable credential”: equal to one half of an AAS, so he has the opportunity to come back to earn this degree in the future.  He is the first in his family to graduate from college and “plans to bust his behind” (his words) to make sure his children will go on to college, too.

SUNY TEAM has already changed thousands of futures, helping students like Patricio find paths forward that support both their needs for today and their dreams for tomorrow.  The SUNY Board was overwhelmed by the scope and impact of this project and thankful for MCC’s leadership in assuring its success.  My gratitude goes out to VP Todd Oldham and the SUNY TEAM MCC team!

If you want to learn more about the project, watch
this video created by the talented EDIWS Video Production group.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the blog.

Anne M. Kress
President's Office
06/17/2015