SUNY Adirondack and a local BOCES program have relaunched a program that provides high school students with college credits with a goal of ensuring career readiness.
SUNY Adirondack and the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex Board of Cooperative Educational Services have rebranded their two-year-old early college high school program as SUNY Adirondack: Career Academy.
The program allows students from participating school districts to gain college credits toward an associate degree in growing fields. Students can focus in Informational Technology/Networking and Advanced Manufacturing.
SUNY Adirondack President Kristine Duffy said she’s seen the success in the program over the last two years in giving students a head start on college.
“Most of the students are choosing to go on - either stay here at Adirondack to complete an electrical technology degree or another degree program, maybe in math and science, which also has a good correlation, or move on to a different school.”
The Career Academy trains students in the workforce skills needed at local companies.
BOCES Career & Technical Education Director Doug Leavens said the core of the program is career guidance.
“And ensuring that students are positioned that students are able to continue their education in college, but at the same time, ensuring that their work guides them towards career.”
The program has already developed partnerships with local employers including Irving Tissue and GlobalFoundries.
Duffy said the name change is designed to better communicate the purpose of the program to parents and students.
“We just felt this was a much clearer way to describe what students are going to get out of what. When you’re talking about not only coursework but opportunities for job shadowing, even internships, well that really is directly related to helping you as a student make good decisions about your career path.”
Following a P-TECH model, the SUNY Adirondack: Career Academy is joined by the Clean Technologies Early College High School Program facilitated by the Ballston Spa Central School District and Hudson Valley Community College in putting young students in “Tech Valley” on the path to career readiness.
Again, Dr. Duffy.
“This whole Tech Valley region, the corridor from us all the way down, has been a work-in-progress that has been very successful, and why wouldn’t we want to encourage more of our local students to stay here and work in these high-tech, high paying jobs? And that’s really the focus.”
The Cuomo Administration has been a supporter in NYS P-TECH programs. Sixteen opened in 2014, and 10 are slated for opening this year.
On Monday, Duffy delivered her annual “State of the College’ address. She raised concerns about a proposal in Gov. Cuomo’s budget that would tie funding for SUNY campuses to unspecified performance outcome measures.
Duffy was concerned of the possibility of aid for a community college being tied to graduation rates.
“The executive budget for the governor has indicated no additional funding for community colleges next year. And when you hold back 10 percent of already a flat rate, obviously that puts us in a little bit of an uncomfortable seat. But I want to be clear that every college including Adirondack is concerned about completion.”
SUNY Adirondack was set to hold information sessions for those interested in the Career Academy program at the college’s Queensbury and Wilton campuses Wednesday night.
For more information visit: http://www.sunyacc.edu/
