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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

MCC Collaborates with Local Agencies to Alleviate Worker Shortage


Monroe Community College has begun a successful collaboration with the Rochester Educational Opportunity Center (REOC) to train customer service technical specialists for local companies.  

Blue Cross, Verizon, Frontier, and Time Warner are just a few of the local companies that have approached MCC to hire the first cohort of students from this initiative! Professor Patricia Donohue reports that there will be 100% employment of the first cohort as a result of this collaborative training effort. 

While MCC has offered this training for several semesters, students have expressed little interest in training as a customer service technical specialist. REOC’s role in this collaboration is to provide the students to MCC to train.  Rochester Works provided the tuition funding for eligible students. As a result, MCC has achieved its mission to meet the needs of the local community.

The Department of Human and Health Services has also approached MCC and Associate Dean Kate Schiefen for future collaborative efforts. Monroe County is considering training public assistance clients interested in the customer service profession to be technical specialists in the county’s call centers.  

Professor Donohue reports that the students have all been approached with job offers. As part of the educational process, students have traveled to several local businesses. The students are pleased with the generous entry level pay as well as the pristine working conditions available to them.    
      
The training is being conducted at MCC’s Damon City Campus. Instruction is provided by the Office and Computer Program Department, Division of Technical Education. Interested individuals may contact Associate Dean Kate Schiefen from MCC or Patricia Beaudrie, recruitment coordinator for REOC.

Kate Schiefen
Technical Education
03/31/2005