CMT Core Group Meeting - February 10, 2011

Core Group CMT Meeting
Thursday, February 10

Updates

Lynn – College of Technology
The final numbers are not in yet for spring semester enrollment, but the financial aid office was very busy. Wolf and Lynn discussed career advising services and possible opportunities for partnership. Lynn followed up with Jodie on the Medical Coding programs as discussed at the last Core Group meeting. The hope is that a medical coding certificate could translate into credits at some point, and efforts are being made at various schools around the state to figure out if and how certificates and experience can translate to credits. Lynn and Jodie also discussed the CNA programs, their demand, and their status as non-credit offerings. Clinical placements for medical programs are very limited in Missoula, due to many people coming in from other areas to do clinicals in our medical community. The schools are competing for clinical placements. Larry is working on comprehensive management of statewide clinical placements. The COT just went through their National Nursing Accreditation. They expect to receive national accreditation for their RN program. The LPN program is state accredited.

Jodie – Lifelong Learning Center
The spring catalog will be out on Tuesday. Adult Basic Education is very busy. There are waiting lists for some of the time slots in the ABE managed enrollment system. They are in the process of looking at the full ABE orientation and enrollment process to determine if changes need to be made. Jodie and Saundra discussed partnership possibilities and details for having Job Service attend ABE Orientations. The partnership between LLC and Home Resource is really taking off. Many plumbing and electrical classes have been moved to Home Resource. The LLC is still having trouble getting low income students to enroll in classes at Home Resource. Jodie is thinking about the possibility of using FB to post special offers on certain occasions.

Wolf – Job Service
Wolf is working as the Chair of the newly branded Chamber Workforce Development & Education Committee. They are discussing some “Eggs & Issues” breakfast topics including the MCPS Building Reserve and Health Care. The committee is working to keep the subject matter open and convert their discussions into action. They also hope to help guide the direction of the discussions towards information that will be useful for the COT and the LLC. Wolf and Lynn discussed the work Lynn has done with Leadership High School. Wolf asked what Jodie and Lynn think the LLC and COT could gain from the Chamber committee. Jodie pointed out that the Workforce Development & Education committee could assist businesses with understanding that the LLC can provide low cost and repetitive training to specific industries, if the needs are defined by the business and conveyed to the LLC. The LLC can partner with businesses to make sure they have trained and qualified applicants for jobs. Lynn pointed out that they needed to point out something to tackle, and then take action. She hoped that the organizations and the businesses could be accountable to the committee for making things happen. The agreement is that we all need to collaborate together to get the job done, and come together to make sure that actions are taken to move the community forward.

Next Meeting
The next Core Group meeting is Thursday, March 3rd at 9:00 at Job Service.