A quiet revolution is being staged inside the offices of college administrators, on their phones and in their e-mails. These administrators are reaching out to the business community, an outreach that has become a key part of the business of education.
Why?
Bob Clark, Dean of the University of Kansas, Edwards campus, answers that question. He believes the purpose of his campus is to add value with "economic and community development as the outcome." What drives value, in his opinion, is workforce development. "We must educate enough individuals so that the economy will be improved," he says unabashedly. Clark believes that there is a commitment to community through social welfare and policy, through technology, through training, through business, all aimed towards making the whole community stronger.
Dean Al Page of the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri at Kansas City agrees. "Every school has, and must have, relationships with the business community," he notes. The Bloch School has advisory boards scattered throughout all divisions. Its reprsentatives meet with companies on a regular basis. Guest speakers from the business world come into Bloch classrooms to give advice on a regular basis. The school sends its students on internships to learn what people need and continually gets input from recruiters. "Being part of a university today," adds Page, "means going out to the business community in many different ways."
The business community fully sanctions this idea. Corporate training grew into a $55 billion industry in 1998, and Kansas City companies definitely understand the value of training and retraining their employees especially during a time of skilled labor shortages. Gigi Lane, Manager of Learning and Development for Butler Manufacturing, says that for companies who see employees as true assets, like Butler, on-going learning is essential for both the employee and the organization to prosper. Jeff Driskill, Director of Enrollment Management for the School of Professional and Graduate Studies at Baker University, also points out that the tight job market makes companies recruit more students directly out of college, and additional education proves highly useful to both student and company.
It is clear that area colleges and universities are not only listening with an attuned ear to business and industry, but they are also actively seeking out the advice, input, and participation of businesses. Although "lifelong learning" has become a catch phrase, and while it still is a valid rationale for expanded curricula, key administrators cite as their motive in providing this education the desire to help create and retrain a solid work force. Companies also have realized that additional education and training not only improve their employees' skills, but it also helps retain them.
In order to provide this education, institutions are going beyond the norm and exploring new options. The newest wrinkle is, of course, Internet-related. The most obvious accommodation to the Internet is the obligatory web site, no matter the size or purpose of the institution. Such a site is indispensable for more than information about the institution and its location. Now one can often enroll, pay tuition, research in the library, and even take courses while on-line
Schools are just not offering courses but entire degrees over the Web. Whether undergraduate, training or graduate level courses, the flexibility of time and access make these courses enormously appealing. In "distance learning," students set the pace, as long as they meet the overall requirements. Courses often include audio and video. Students interact with one another and the instructor by e-mail and chat rooms. Practically every area school offers such courses, including Keller Graduate School which offers an MBA on line in its entirety. This kind of learning is particularly beneficial for transferring students.
Rockhurst began its on-line courses in response to time and flexibility issues. In 1999, Park University, with both undergraduate and graduate degrees, grossed $1 million in tuition from its Internet courses in 1999. This year, according to Park President Dr. Don Breckon, Park expects tuition from its Internet courses to come in at $5 million and double that in 2001. Breckon points out that despite their growth, Internet degree programs aren't for everyone students must be adept at using computers, using e-mail, sending and receiving files, and searching the Web. Highly effective reading and writing skills are essential as are discipline, time management, and organizational abilities the same skills needed in business.
Everyone who uses a computer and the Internet knows about the potential for electronic "dog eating homework" scenarios-- the computer or the Internet provider "crashing," delays in downloading information, the phone lines or electrical service not working properly. But still the numbers of people getting their education over the Internet is a rapidly spiraling tornado ever gathering force. Alex Burden, UMKC's Director of Alumni and Development, notes that when the same course in their new Bachelors of Information Technology degree program (BIT) is offered through the Internet or in the traditional classroom, more than 40% of students are already opting for the Internet. He expects that trend to continue upward.
The BIT degree at UMKC is a great example of what happens when schools respond to a corporate need. In February of 1998, local corporations and industry associations approached the university to help them address a severe corporate and community need. There were more than 2,500 unfilled information technology positions in the greater Kansas City area and more than 200,000 positions available nationwide last year according to the Information Technology Association of America.
Responding to the request, UMKC worked with its Technical Advisory Board, consisting of companies like SW Bell, Midwest Research, UMB Bank, Hallmark, Cerner, Black & Veatch and others. Half of the initial development funding came from members--Sprint, Kansas City Power & Light, and American Century. The result was a degree program creating a new pipeline for students to earn an information technology degree that emphasizes current trends in computer software technology and application development for the working business environment. More than 150 students entered the program its first semester, the Fall of 1999, with the school expecting at least 200 this September.
The intention is to offer the entire degree program on the Internet. The ability to take classes asynchronously greatly enhances the BIT's accessibility and flexibility, making individual courses and the entire degree program available not only to traditional students but also to working professionals and disadvantaged students, according to Dr. Ken Blundell who leads the Virtual University Development Team.
A similar collaboration recently occurred between the University of Kansas Edwards Campus and Sprint. These entities worked together to create a completely Web-based communications technology class offered this spring. The three credit course, entitled Communication Technology and Organizational Change, emphasizes changes in organizational communication patterns due to new technologies such as e-mail, voice mail, teleconferencing, Group Ware, and the Internet. The class is open to both KU undergraduates and graduate students and Sprint employees through its University of Excellence® (UE), Sprint's Corporate Training Division. Both organizations believe this collaborative approach is beneficial because it develops a creative experimental model for web course delivery, develops research findings, and establishes recommendations for future development. "Through this partnership," says Janice Hawley, Manager of Sprint's University, College and Alliance Partnerships, "Sprint employees will gain information and skills enabling them to approach their work more effectively."
This partnership is one of many, according to Dean of the KU Edwards campus, Bob Clark. His first step upon taking this position nearly three years ago was to meet with executives from major businesses in the area. From them, he learnd of the necessity for additional programming. One result was eight new workforce demanded programs such as a new Masters Degree of Public Administration, a new heath services administration degree, the MBA/MHSA joint degree program. Another is the new Certificate in Systems Analysis and Design, also aimed at the continuing need for a qualified information systems workforce. Others include a Web-based Doctor of Pharmacy program and new degrees in engineering and business.
Meeting new technology's ever changing challenges is clearly one driving force for innovation in course curriculum. "The shelf life of knowledge is not what it used to be," says Ron Logan, Associate Dean of the School of Management at Rockhurst College. "Consequently, on-going knowledge acquisition is mandatory to maintain currency." As Logan notes, the environment has changed. Business is more complex today. The acceleration of knowledge itself has changed; so in order to keep pace, employees have to continually challenge themselves." Rockhurst created its Information Technology Leadership Program based on input from the Regional Consortium for Technology and Information Exchange, a partnership of about 50 prominent businesses and educational institutions, whose goal is to offer low cost and high quality technology training.
Another example of technology's push is the new concentration in electronic commerce offered by Keller Graduate School of Management in its Master of Information Systems Management (MISM) program. "Students will gain the technological skills required to design and construct Web sites and databases that companies need to offer e-commerce options to their customers," says Mike Haverty, Regional Director. The Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at UMKC offers what it calls its Tool Kit program, a three credit hour course that takes a practical look at technology topics. It tackles concepts such as building network economies into business, the difference technology can make to a company no matter its industry, and how to take best advantage of the Internet.
Both Kansas City and Johnson County community colleges have also embraced technology. The Metropolitan Community Colleges' Business and Technology Center's mission is to provide training, development and performance consulting to area businesses. More than 20,000 business people come there for training each year, making it the largest training resource in Missouri. Their technical training includes industrial, machine, OSHA, computer, AutoCAD and much more. They are the only community college unit of its kind in the United States to have ISO 9000 registration which they also help companies implement.
Johnson County Community College's Continuing Education and Community Services Division offers more than 2,500 classes, seminars, programs and workshops in 100 locations throughout the county. A technological thrust is evident as JCCC has more than 600 computer training courses each year, many occurring at area businesses through its innovative program, On Your Site, which takes college credit classes to the workplace. JCCC has also partnered with Sun Microsystems to be a certified training arm, one of only eight community colleges in the country to gain certification. LeAnna Wilson, Director of the Center for Business and Technology Center (the recent name change from the Business and Industry Institute better reflects its focus), notes that a business focus can take many avenues. JCCC is the only community college in the country that has a Supervisory Skills Assessment Center where participants spend a day in the life of a supervisor. Supervisors participate in an "in-basket" exercise and four videotaped business simulations that are "diagnosed." Participants receive an objective evaluation of their strengths and development areas and may continue with their education to earn a certificate in supervisory skills.
Every school has seen the inevitable impact of technology upon the institution, its faculty, and its curriculum. These schools continue to listen to the business community in other ways as well. All offer evening courses now and nearly all use some or all practitioner instructors which Webster University touts as a way to simultaneously learn from the business community and give students apractical education that they can use immediately at work..
Benedictine College, located in nearby Atchison, utilizes another device heavily: the student internship. Both its undergraduate and graduate students in two separate programs, one in conjunction with the Kauffman Foundation, work in area businesses for summers or during the school year. The opportunity to share their knowledge and gain practical experience at the same time is invaluable, according to Don Hoy, Executive Director of the Cray Center which was developed to encourage entrepreneurship among the students.
Washburn University, a liberal arts undergraduate and graduate school located in Topeka, is also proud of its intern program in which approximately 1,000 of its 6,000 students participate each year. Dr. Jerry Farley, President, says that the school is also listening to the business community in Topeka. He has been one of the founding members of a new organization called Go Topeka, a first time economic development entity. In answer to business needs to get employees trained rapidly, Washburn is offering a program with Johnson County and Kansas City, Kansas community colleges through which all classes from the community college transfer into Washburn's program, allowing students to complete their degree far more quickly than is often possible. And, they can complete it while remaining on their home community college campus. This spring, Washburn signed agreements with eleven other community colleges in Kansas which will extend the full degree completion option to many more "placebound" students. The program already has about 200 students participating from KCKJC and JCCC.
This year Avila College developed the Avila Resource Group as a response to business. The group's purpose, according to Norman Dexter, Assistant Vice President for Professional Education and Outreach, is to reach out to variously sized companies, listen to their needs, and create both training and degree completion programs. Avila has three accelerated degree programs at AT&T, offers two degrees at the Ford Claycomo plant, and has a degree program at Farmland as well. They have even taken the school to smaller on site locations such as the local branch of the GSA and Livers Bronze with about 150 employees.
Yet another approach to listening to the entire community is the one taken by William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, 20 minutes northeast of Kansas City. Established in 1849 as the first four-year men's college west of the Mississippi, it became coeducational in 1921. Since then, this liberal arts school has become well known for its vast variety of programming which goes far the expected. Its music, art and seminar calendar has gained national renown for its scope and innovation. William Jewell also offers a plethora of choices through their continuing education office everything from soft skills business training to aquatics art, astronomy, and computer classes. The list is endless, all in response to the requests, interests, and business concerns of Liberty's citizens.
Kansas City and regional colleges and universities are definitely listening to their entire clientele. Responsible for turning out degreed individuals, these schools are working diligently to respond to training and retraining issues of their community. Technology has spawned not only innovation in terms of curriculum and its delivery system but has also created a vast audience of eternal students who can take classes from work, from home, amd from on the road. Experts agree that work--and workers--are radically changing; some say up to 90% of all current white collar jobs won't exist in 20 years. If that's even close to true, area schools will continue to play an increasingly important role in re-educating, retraining, and revitalizing the work force in any number of innovative and technologically advanced ways, each resulting from listening to the needs of the community.
`Today `Lifelong learning'' is not only a slogan; it is an imperative.