Maricopa Community Colleges Announce New Corporate College to Increase Skills of Arizona Workforce

Maricopa Community Colleges Feb. 14, 2013

The Maricopa Community Colleges today announced creation of a Maricopa corporate college, a new entity that will provide customized technical training to local employers. Maricopa Chancellor Rufus Glasper has appointed Dr. Eugene Giovannini to be president of the new organization. Currently, Dr. Giovannini is President of GateWay Community College. Chancellor Glasper announced that a nationwide search has begun for a new president of GateWay Community College; Dr. Giovannini will continue as President until a successor is named.

Established to help close the skills gap – the difference between needed and available trained employees – the corporate college will quickly develop and implement training solutions for new and existing Arizona businesses based on specifically identified needs. The corporate college will provide consultative services to businesses, and continuing education to professionals, and will oversee district entrepreneurial activities and initiatives, such as the business incubator on the GateWay campus.

“This exciting project allows us to address Maricopa County’s need to stimulate economic growth – and create more jobs — by offering new and existing employers a way to continuously train or re-train workers,” Dr. Glasper said. “Dr. Giovannini has the background, experience and intense focus on workforce training that this position requires.” The new entity has not yet been named.

Using best practices of successful corporate colleges implemented in Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Florida and Indiana, Maricopa’s corporate college will provide non-accredited training. This means it will function independently of the 10 Maricopa community colleges and two skill centers while drawing on their faculty and facility resources when appropriate. In addition to working with employers that are moving into the Valley, it will offer professional and continuing education programs to established corporations and associations. While it is called a corporate college, it differs from the community colleges in that it will not be accredited and will not offer for-credit courses.

“The principal difference is the colleges provide workforce training solutions with already-designed programs, while the corporate college responds to the employer’s immediate needs with custom solutions,” Dr. Giovannini explained. He added that Maricopa’s Center for Workforce Development will continue to do valuable work facilitating the offering of occupational education, primarily at the Maricopa Colleges.

Dr. Giovannini is beginning his 11th year as President of GateWay. He previously served for seven years as Vice President of Burlington County College, Pemberton, NJ and, prior to that, as Dean of Instructional Affairs and Interim Director of Student Services at Ivy Tech State College-Southwest, Evansville, IN. he holds a Ed.D. in Community College Education from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, and has done post-doctoral work at Wharton Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds Master of Education and Bachelor of Science degrees in Business Education from Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA.

It is expected that a successor to Dr. Giovannini will be in place July 1, 2013, at which time the corporate college will officially begin offering its services and he will assume full-time duties there. Until then, he will oversee GateWay while establishing the corporate college. For more information on GateWay’s presidential search, visit http://www.gatewaycc.edu/presidentsearch.

About Maricopa Community Colleges
The Maricopa Community College system is one of the largest in the nation. We are: Chandler-Gilbert, Estrella Mountain (and SouthWest Skill Center), GateWay (and Maricopa Skill Center), Glendale, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Rio Salado, Scottsdale and South Mountain; the system also includes satellite campuses and business/industry, technical and customized training institutes Valley-wide. www.maricopa.edu.


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