The Maricopa Community Colleges recently announced the 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, Giovannini is president of GateWay Community College. Chancellor Glasper announced that a nationwide search has begun for a new president of GateWay Community College; Giovannini will continue on until a successor is named.
Established to help close the skills gap – the difference between needed and available trained employees – the corporate college will focus on specifically defined client needs to quickly develop and implement training solutions for new and existing Arizona businesses. 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 offers contract training to its clients only.
“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 an 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 he will be able to devote his full energies to the corporate college. Until then, he will oversee GateWay while organizing the corporate college.