JAMESTOWN COMMUNITY COLLEGE PLANNING, BUDGETING, AND ASSESSMENT (PBA) INITIATIVE FORM

Transcription

1 PBA Initiative Form JAMESTOWN COMMUNITY COLLEGE PLANNING, BUDGETING, AND ASSESSMENT (PBA) INITIATIVE FORM Division: Continuing Education Priority # 1 Department: Center for Continuing Education Contacts: John Sayegh Project Title: LERN program review Funding Source: New - College Cost: $10,000 A. Description (Brief summary of initiative what will be accomplished?) JCC s Center for Continuing Education (CE) continues to strive for optimum performance, better serve our business and community partners and enhance our departments revenue generation, community outreach, business engagement, program offerings and operations. CE seeks to further develop its business plan by engaging in an allencompassing CE program review from a nationally renowned organization LERN (Learning Resources Network). LERN is the world s largest association in continuing education and lifelong learning, offering information and consulting expertise to providers of continuing education and customized training. Founded in 1974, LERN serves more than 9,000 professionals every year. LERN provides practical, how-to information on marketing, finances, management, sales and product development. LERN s services include publications, newsletters, webinars, conferences, institutes and in-house training programs in addition to providing consulting services to members. LERN includes current and historical reports on continuing education and customized training best practices, trends, and benchmarks; online discussions with colleagues from around the world; news; surveys; and more. The benefits of the program review include: discovering how JCC s CE program matches up to others in our constituency; utilizing the proper tracking benchmarks to measure performance; understand key actions required to implement in order to reduce costs and boost revenue/registrations; lay out an integrated plan/model encompassing all areas within the department to improve programming, marketing, sales and operations; and generate an ROI with investment in conducting a program review.

2 B. Core Values (Brief explanation of how the initiative aligns with Core Values limit two.) In reference to JCC s Core Value of Robust Enrollments, and the statement: to attract and retain an optimum number of students in order to serve community needs and maintain a foundation for continuing excellence in all we do, the LERN review measures performance criteria to assist CE with making informed and data driven decisions in the areas of: marketing, finances, product development, and program/project management. This criteria helps CE collectively to expand our efficiencies and effectiveness using data to further support the direction of our program maintenance and development. This leads to creating and offering coursework in areas such as: technology, workforce development, community enrichment and youth programming that draws individuals to the campus that may otherwise not attend and/or create pathways for entry to academic programming. The review also assists in further establishing our niche with business and industry regarding our customized training programs. In reference to our Core Value of Culture of Evidence, the intent of the LERN program review is to systematically gather, analyze, and act on evidence about student learning, satisfaction, and engagement. The LERN program review also will guide CE to better scan the external environment for challenges and opportunities. The CE department then will use LERN s data analysis and guidance to directly improve student learning and institutional effectiveness, to prioritize budget items, and to develop CE s strategic planning goals. C. Strategic Institutional Goals (Brief explanation of how the initiative promotes the Strategic Institutional Goals limit two) The LERN program review truly endorses JCC s Strategic Institutional Goal to Build Robust Enrollments as the entire process provides a continuous guidance to improve competences in areas as: marketing, finances, sales and product development, and management. This allows CE to further focus on developing and offering relevant, in-demand opportunities and programs to our various customer bases, which relates directly to increased enrollment. The LERN program review also greatly supports JCC s Strategic Institutional Goal to Enhance Workforce Development. Part of the LERN review process includes examining CE s ability to collaborate with business and industry partners and to develop and implement targeted plans for supporting the preparation and continued skill development of the regional workforce. One of the many areas that the LERN program review will cover, within their Product Development section, is data collection and interpretation. The LERN organization continually reinforces the notion that continuing education departments need to be data driven. This includes obtaining and deciphering the appropriate data on our areas business demographics as well as mapping out a reasonable, consistent outreach plan using the available human capital within CE employing recommendations and proven best practices from LERN. 1

3 D. Collaborating Entities (Identify participating and/or collaborating units/departments/ divisions indicate approval and willingness to support or participate.) The inherent definition and success of a CE department lends itself to working collaboratively with many internal and external partners on projects and offerings. The results of the review may produce findings to assist with efficiencies or creating meaningful programs with them. The partners may be asked to participate in the review, only to provide some foundational information and support to the LERN team. LERN plans to identify targeted partners upon completion of reviewing preliminary information CE sends prior to their campus visit. Examples of some of our partners LERN may engage include: Business Office registration & payment processes with CE Academic Affairs collaborative projects Legal reviews and edits all of our contracts. Marketing how to support promotions and web sites Administration how CE fits into college s vision, mission and institutional goals Area Businesses the ability of CE to respond to requests and identify potential opportunities. Community organizations - partnerships that support community and business needs WIB programming to support One Stop clients and business/industry Adult Literacy agencies creating pathways to learning opportunities for employment or entry to academic programs DIDI partnering with CE on STEM related programming and engaging youth in manufacturing 2

4 E. Rationale (Explain in one to two paragraphs the reason for this planning request, supporting information and data, the anticipated impact on the linked objectives, and/or the benefit to the department/division/college.) As an outcome of the LERN program review, CE expects to receive data based on nationally proven recommendations and continued life time support, and to greatly improve efficiencies and profitability in all areas including marketing, finances, management, sales and product development. The overall objectives and outcomes to be gathered from CE s LERN program review include, but are not limited to the following: 1. A review of CE s financial data collecting and reporting systems to support CE s ability to assist with the development of strategic planning and implementation of best practice and benchmark tracking and reporting. 2. A review of CE s marketing plan to align with the best practices of other CE departments in our nation. 3. A review of CE s human resources to best align staff with job duties and functions and provide staff training, if necessary. 4. A review of CE s program development and planning processes to align with nationally recognized best practices. F. Assessment/Accountability (Describe expected outcomes including how and when success will be measured) JCC s investment for CE to partake in the LERN program review is not only a one year investment but viewed as a long term growth opportunity. CE is suggesting this review based upon experiences and outcomes of community colleges across the country participating in the LERN review. These CE units have generated at least a 10:1 ROI with every dollar spent with LERN. CE expects a conservative annual increase in program and department revenue. Over five years CE expects to generate at least a 10:1 ROI in money spent conducting the review. 3

5 G. Budgeting: (personnel or technology request must be reviewed by the Human Resources and Information Technology departments) New Funds Requested 1. Salaries: 2. Benefits: Click here to enter text. 3. Capital/equipment: Click here to enter text. 4. Other/contractual: $10, Describe any reallocation of existing funds: CE does not have any existing funds to reallocate towards this extremely worthwhile initiative. 4