Speakers
Christina Amato, Dean of E-Learning, Sinclair Community College
Kyle Jones, Department Chair, Computer Science and Information Technology
Transcript
CHRISTINA: I think that our CB program has changed that conversation. Um, we have a more organic relationship with employers as a result of the work done by our faculty in these programs. So, we kind of, detonated the advisory board structure. We moved away from having two separate conversations with employers; one with the work-force non-credit side and one on the academic credit side and we have integrated conversations between both sides of the house here at Sinclair where we talk about, "What are your actual needs for particular jobs?". I think that competencies create a common language between us and employers. Competencies transcend academic credit, um, non-credit and I think they create a common language and currency between us and employers.
KYLE: We brought in industry teams and leaders from a lot of the major companies here in Ohio to say, "If we're gonna have a student to learn data analytics, what do they need to know to complete the program?" We have, uh, Kroger and Honda; both reached out to us instantly and said, "We want to be a part to help build this program because we see this lack of data analytic professionals." Then we just take that group, we bring 'em in, uh, get an idea of the questions we want to ask them like, "What skills they'll need", "What software they use" "What industry trends that are out there" and we build surveys off of those questions and then we build our group and now we meet twice a year to make sure that we're on track with that degree program and the skills. So, we actually developed four new classes off of their recommendations. So, we bring 'em in and survey 'em, have group discussions and we basically drill down to the exact competencies, the skills and the programming languages that those students needed to know in order to go into data analytics. Then that built our, um, new Data Analytics Associate Degree.
CHRISTINA: Institutions will need to talk to various stakeholders across their campus from the IT department, to their learning management systems staff, to the bursars office and registrar and in addition to that those conversations will need to be mapped to and aligned with those conversations going on with employers. So, I think the most important thing is to remember, um, the stakeholders are not, um, maybe as simple as they initially seem. There are going to be more people who need to be in the conversation for it to be successful.
To hear more from your peers on "How to Crosswalk Competency Models with Curriculum", visit the Compentency Model Clearinghouse. Click on Get Started at www.careeronestop.org/CompetencyModel