Dena Maloney, dean of the College of the Canyons economic development department, has a simple credo about the significance of the business education and job training programs offered at her school: “Companies need to have their employees with the latest skills so they can compete and grow and thrive and enhance the community.” It’s a philosophy that drives the dozens of business education programs at colleges across the region from a course at Los Angeles Valley College on how to handle testy customers to organizations at California State University Northridge designed to help small- and family-owned businesses thrive. In fact, College of the Canyons has turned business education into something of a cottage industry in the Santa Clarita Valley. Through its Economic and Workforce Development Division, the two-year community college has no fewer than a dozen customized training, consulting and education seminars geared towards educating business leaders and employees. The most active is the Employee Training Institute, a program started in the early 1990s that teaches a wide variety of on-the-job skills, from the purely technical such as how to solder to sociological such as how to be a better manager. “They range from production job training for hourly workers all the way to management skills and leadership skills for supervisors and team leaders,” Maloney said. Over the past 10 years, the Institute has trained 10,000 people in 1,500 firms and generated more than $4 million in training and business funds, according to the school. College of the Canyons is also one of 12 California community colleges with a comprehensive technology training center, initially developed to provide engineers to Boeing and Lockheed. The school has also partnered with a number of local educators, including Ventura College to create the 126 Corridor Biotechnology Education and Training Collaborative and Pierce College to launch the Small Business Development Center. The college has also partnered with local businesses and trade groups. In August, it received a $344,000 grant to develop an automotive technology program, which was partially funded by the Santa Clarita Valley Auto Dealers Association. Its Welding Technology Program this summer received national accreditation from the American Welding Society, making the college one of the few AWS testing facilities in the state. On-site and on-campus Elsewhere, colleges large and small have been reaching out to the business community in the case of the Professional Development Center at Glendale Community College for more than two decades. “We’re in tune with what people need and how to make it happen,” said Program Manager Pamela Welden. “It’s been successful.” That’s accomplished at Glendale by offering an innovative slate of hands-on training seminars and technical seminars both at its Montrose Training Center and Glendale Environmental Management Center and through an extension program. For companies, the free, state-supported workshops are a chance for employees to brush up on computer skills, management techniques or new technologies. Welden said the programs are tailored to what a company needs. “All training is customized, very experiential and relates directly to the productivity changes required at the employees’ place of work,” Welden said. Officials from Vought Aircraft Industries, for example, turned to the Center to help restructure their organization to meet the demands of a global market, Welden said. Staffers took part in seminars for more than five years, she said. Other clients range from small- and mid-sized business such as Chatsworth-based Classic Cosmetics to national companies including Ducommun AeroStructures of Gardena and Burbank’s Crane HydroAire. Practical applications To handle the different needs, the center has to adapt theories into practical techniques, Welden said. “The end result is that the supervisor and the manager has a set of tools that help them harness the power of the team, this raises the self esteem of the supervisor and every member of the team,” she said. “We work with the students and managers and the upper echelon in the business organization.” It’s a similar goal at California State University, Northridge, which runs a variety programs to link businesses with education, said Matt Rinnert, director of development and alumni relations for the university’s business school. The Center for Small Business & Entrepreneurship, for example, links senior-level business students with small business owners to develop marketing and business plans while the Family Business Center serves as a networking group for family-owned companies. CSUN also operates the Center for Management and Organization Development, a nonprofit that provides consulting to businesses that want to improve management practices and performance, Rinnert said. “That’s the best example of the jobs training we do,” he said. Emphasis on technology In Camarillo, the heart of the so-called 101 Biotech Corridor, technology is the name of the game. At California State University Channel Islands, the Business and Technology Partnership pairs business execs, educators and students to focus on the role of technology and business. Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar runs Team Research Approach in Laboratory Science, a program developed by instructors Angela Echeverri and Mike Reynolds to place talented students in high-tech biomed internships. This summer, two interns were placed with MannKind Corp., a Valencia biopharmaceutical firm. Another biomed firm helping out locally is Amgen Inc., which last year provided a $210,000 grant to California Lutheran University to help secondary and elementary school teachers attending the Amgen Summer Science Institute, which focuses on technology and science platforms for students. Amgen also helped launch a new interdisciplinary course on the development of biomedical product from concept to approval. The Thousand Oaks school also runs the Executive Roundtable, a discussion with local executives from Baxter BioPharmaceuticals, Universal Studios Hollywood, Countrywide Financial and Advanced Bionics. Back to basics While technology is stressed in Ventura County, other colleges are taking a back-to-basics approach. Lennie Ciufo, director of the Los Angeles Valley College Job Training Program, said that many workers need help with basic English and math skills. “We’re not getting that fundamental skills training,” he said. “There’s a lack of writing skills in businesses.” As a result, Ciufo’s programs along with traditional career training such as computer applications focus on how to use communication skills to handle employees, provide critiques and give presentations. “Managerial skills are really communication skills,” Ciufo said. “That is mostly what we do.” Communication is also a major focus in the customized classes at the Economic & Workforce Development Department at Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills. Courses focus on administration skills, navigating industry-specific terms, environment technology, manufacturing efficiency and how to address sexual harassment.
