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Georgia College & State University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies is now offering employer education partnerships.
The employer education partnership was an initiative program started to connect the school to businesses across Georgia. It allows businesses to partner with GCSU to gain access to graduate programs, online graduate certificates, noncredit programs and customized employer education programs.
“The partnership program allows us to share our educational programs to help businesses upskill, reskill, and find ways to advance their employees and it assists businesses to retain employees as well,” said Angela Criscoe, executive director of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies. “The workforce grows at a rapid pace so employees need a way to advance quickly and efficiently.”
According to Criscoe, during COVID, many employees reevaluated their work life and their future. This resulted in many people dropping out of college, looking to upskill and trying to advance in their career. This also led to people seeking short-form credentials to take in order to advance in a current job or move on to a new job.
“Because of these observations, we began looking into ways our school could help employers retain employees and employees advance skills,” said Criscoe. “The answer to that was bridging GCSU’s programs to the community.”
The partnership between a business and the school will be created based on the business’ needs with the goal to integrate a workforce-ready curriculum to educate employees and strengthen the workplace. When applying for a partnership, Criscoe works with the business to identify needs and gaps in skills.
After analyzing these gaps and needs, a program may be offered through the school to complete or the School of Continuing and Professional Studies will provide their support and resources to create a customized program.
“If a business is interested, they reach out to me and we provide a survey to employers that allows them to survey employees and determine gaps,” said Criscoe. “Then we discuss solutions and look at what programs we already offer or determine if a new program is needed.”
Through the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, businesses will have access to graduate programs already in place at GCSU.
Graduate programs can take place online or on campus and cover a range of topics. Completing these programs will give employees credit and certification.
“While we partner with the graduate school to offer many programs, customized programs have become more popular,” said Criscoe.
“Offering the choice to customize a program is essential to the partnerships we establish.”
These customized programs can be specifically tailored to a business’ needs. It can be provided at any time, day or night, and created to be online, on campus or at a chosen location.
“Currently our most popular customized program is with city municipalities around the state,” said Criscoe. “We have determined there is a need for leadership and management skills for emerging leaders running cities and counties across the state so we have developed programs to nurture and strengthen these skills.”
According to Criscoe, these programs have been inexpensive and have touched on leadership essentials and business fundamentals. Leaders are learning about how to manage their budgets, how to speak to the public, how to coach, and more that will prepare them for leading a city or county. In addition, one course focuses on people management that teaches HR strategies like training and onboarding employees, conflict management, and more.
The final course of the program evolves around roleplaying to put the skills learned to use in practice situations.
“This program has gained a lot of traction because it’s well-rounded to not only teach but practice skills,” said Criscoe.
“By ensuring the education is not only listening but also practicing, employees are going to retain these skills and recognize how to continue strengthening them after they leave our programs.”
This strategy of personalization combined with articulated teaching and practicing has also made customized employer education programs popular with school districts across the state.
Leaders around Georgia recognize the importance of upskilling teachers, city and county leaders and more. Criscoe hopes that this popularity will also reach local businesses so employees can be retained and upskilled to assist their communities better.
For further information, or to inquire about specific courses, call 478-818-7345 or e-mail angela.criscoe@gcsu.edu.