Local businesses have vital resource at CMCC

CMCC Learning Photo:

SENIOR CLASS — Students who take continuing education courses at CMCC are more likely to be older now than they were several years ago, say administrators.

AREA — During the economic downturn, student populations are getting older, and seeking skills that will get them specialized jobs, report administrators of the continuing education courses at Central Maine Community College (CMCC).

"We've really seen an increase in older students because," said Diane Dostie, dean of Corporate and Community Services at CMCC, "they've lost their jobs, or they're looking to improve their current skills and retain the job that they've had."

Dostie says that the three most popular courses in the program teach students about phlebotomy, bartending, and high pressure boiler operating.

These classes represent the so-called "hard skills," which Dostie says can be applied directly to a specific job.

"People take phlebotomy because they see it as primary access to the medical field," said Dostie.

Students who sign up pay $450 for a six-week course, after which they are fully trained to draw blood. Students see the investment as small compared to the return, landing a valuable entry-level job in a hospital or nursing home.

This is a contrast from the more casual students of years past.

"In the past we had more people taking things like Microsoft, for personal use," said Dostie. "It might've been people who weren't working who wanted to learn to use their computer better."

Now, says Dostie, the students are mostly interested in classes as a path to a job.

In another sign of the times, Dostie says that the program's grantwriting programs have also seen an increase in enrollment.

"A lot of nonprofits are looking for other sources of funding now," said Dostie, "so being trained in how to best write a grant is very important."

During the recent election, many candidates spoke of the need for workforce retraining, and CMCC has trained thousands of students towards that goal.

"We're really happy to help economic development in any of our service areas," said Dostie.

They offer 25 to 30 classes on the campus each semester, and also offer hundreds of online courses, many of which are the result of partnerships with national companies.

"We don't follow a traditional semester schedule," said Dostie. "Our courses tend to be very specific. We don't have to take 16 weeks to offer a class. We might offer it in half a day, or two consecutive Fridays. We tend to be a lot more flexible."

Dostie says that she wishes more local businesses would take advantage of the workforce training programs.

"We can help a lot of companies, and a lot of folks don't understand what we do," said Dostie. "We're there to help them with their workforce needs. We have the full resources of a community college behind us."

Companies that call are often trying to keep their workforce up-to-date in an ever-shifting job market, and they can ask the college to train their workforce in anything from management skills to precision equipment training.

"People are trying to keep the workforce they currently have, because you don't have a lot of people coming up the pipeline," said Dostie. "So they're really trying to enhance what they've got."