In fact, the number of corporate universities has grown in the past 13 years from 400 to more than 2,000, according to Corporate University Xchange Inc., an education-research and consulting firm in New York City. If that trend continues, the number of corporate universities will exceed the number of traditional institutions within the next 10 years. Community colleges long have been the most cost-effective and knowledgeable sources for workforce training, but we have not been aggressive enough in telling that story. Now that the federal Workforce Investment Act has changed the way government allocates training dollars and technology is making it possible for other entities to deliver training programs, we must do a better job in promoting our training expertise and developing new opportunities. It is, according to Business Week magazine, where Hudson Valley is becoming the training center for the New Economy.
Community colleges no longer can afford to be the same institutions our parents knew.
Certainly, we have a vast reservoir of expertise accumulated throughout our histories. We can and must use that as a foundation on which to build. There are many new challenges facing community colleges these days. Those schools that are flexible, responsive, entrepreneurial and able to work with the community are the schools that are going to come out ahead. The key to success is responding to those challenges.