Apprenticeship Charlotte, a new career-training program CPCC will
customize to meet the specific needs of individual companies.
CPCC has created Apprenticeship Charlotte by drawing on its experience
with the successful Apprenticeship 2000 program, which focuses on high
school students and serves about a dozen European manufacturing
companies in the Charlotte region. Through Apprenticeship Charlotte,
CPCC will offer multiple apprenticeship models, including associate
degree, diploma and certificate options with multiple entry points
from high school through experienced workers. The goal is to make
apprenticeships more flexible to meet employer needs and provide
shorter experiences to address critical workforce needs.
"For centuries, apprenticeships have been an excellent way for
employers to build a talent pipeline," explained Richard Zollinger,
CPCC vice president for learning. "Apprenticeships can be invaluable
when permanent positions are available but skilled talent is difficult
to find, when a company has plans for future expansion, when current
employees need retraining and skills upgrades, and when goals for
diversity have been hard to achieve."
A couple of local and national workforce development trends solidified
CPCC's decision to develop Apprenticeship Charlotte. First, there is a
well-documented skills gap or shortage of trained workers for high-
tech manufacturing jobs and in other technical fields. Second, most
companies want only job candidates that already have some level of
experience.
"CPCC, through Apprenticeship Charlotte, will work with individual
companies to create an apprenticeship model that meets their needs,"
Zollinger said. "Some employers might be interested in training high
school students, others might want traditional age college students in
associate degree or diploma programs. There could be other companies
that want people with previous experience or incumbent workers who can
be trained quickly in a new process or to use a new technology.
"The key to Apprenticeship Charlotte is that CPCC wants to work with
all kinds of employers to develop workplace learning solutions that
meet their needs – everything from identifying candidate pools, to
screening candidates, to developing specific courses and learning
modules," Zollinger added.
CPCC staff membershave been meeting with company leaders to introduce
the Apprenticeship Charlotte program and concepts. The College also
has created a website for the program – www.cpcc.edu/apprenticeships<http://www.cpcc.edu/apprenticeships
>. Anyone with questions about CPCC apprenticeships also can call
704.330.4660, or send an email message to workplace.learning@cpcc.edu<mailto:workplace.learning@cpcc.edu
>.
Central Piedmont Community College is the largest community college in
North Carolina, offering close to 300 degree and certification
programs, customized corporate training, market-focused continuing
education, and special interest classes. CPCC is academically,
financially and geographically accessible to all citizens of
Mecklenburg County. In 2002, the National Alliance of Business named
CPCC the Community College of the Year for its response to the
workforce and technology needs of local employers and job seekers
through innovative educational and training strategies.
