Hudson Valley Community College has joined an international workforce education network. The college made the announcement Thursday.
The school in Troy is the first community college in the United States to join the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training Network, also known as TVET. Under the program, international students will be able to receive work skills training they can then use to train workers in their home countries. College president Roger Ramsammy detailed the effort.
“We call it ‘train the trainers program,’ and that’s what it is. We bring them, and they’re not doing a degree, we’re doing skilled-trades short-term training,” Ramsammy said.
Each round of training will last six weeks.
Mary Beth Reynolds, chair of the college’s Academic Senate and a math professor, says the development was made possible by Ramsammy’s direction.
“Nearly five years ago, President Ramsammy, under his leadership, the college created a new strategic plan with a new mission and vision to meet the needs of a new era, a plan for thinking future forward, and for expanding our outreach to new communities, both underserved communities here at home, and global communities where we can make a difference, and where we could learn from others in their innovation and preparation for the future as well,” Reynolds said.
Freidrich Huebler is Head of Office for TVET. He says joining the network helps the college prepare for the future of education.
“Investing in people is the starting point for fighting poverty and inequality, building resilience, and successfully steering the green and digital transitions. It is about offering everyone an opportunity for lifelong learning. But it's also about how we engage individuals, economies and societies in this new endeavor,” Huebler said.
Sohaib Chekima is president of Annur Islamic School in Schenectady. He says, as an HVCC graduate and former professor there, the educational system itself can be a barrier to achievement.
“Despite its importance, K-12 education is not equally accessible to all, with persistent disparities between privileged and the unprivileged, or underprivileged communities globally. Moreover, the standardization of education has led to a lack of evolution and adaptation to the rapidly changing world around us,” Chekima said.
Chekima’s wife and two children are all current HVCC students.
University at Albany President Havidán Rodríguez says the effort builds on earlier educational outreach programs.
“In 2019, Roger invited me to join him on a trip to meet with Costa Rica's First Lady and Minister of Education to explore education and economic development synergies. This trip spawned a comprehensive education partnership with Costa Rica that includes Hudson Valley faculty training Costa Rican educators,” Rodríguez said.
Those educators teach English as a new language classes; HVCC also provides distance learning classes in STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math — fields to young girls.
Overall, Rodríguez says, the membership positions HVCC at the global forefront of education.
“We will only be successful in this global economy if we leverage knowledge and expertise from around the world to prepare a workforce that is ready to tackle global challenges. President Ramsammy is defining how a community college can meet the needs of its community by expanding what community means. A community college need not limit its ambitions based on its geography,” Rodríguez said.
Ramsammy says the program has seen success so far. He says the most recent group was a cohort from Denmark.
“We’ve now had three cohorts keep coming because more and more students are hearing about what we're doing. They came in for construction the first group, then the next group was on electric- advanced manufacturing. The next group was in electrical science. So you find different groups are hearing and just keep expanding and coming back to us. As in Hungarians, we have 100 Hungarian students getting ready to come, high school students to come and have the experience here,” Ramsammy said.
County Executive Steve McLaughlin agrees it’s good for Rensselaer.
“Anything that expands the college's reach both locally and globally, which a lot of this is, is a global reach. But it also helps locally because kids notice that more what's going on- anything that allows us to grow our workforce,” McLaughlin said.
The Republican says it’s a way for county residents to experience diverse perspectives.
“A kid that grew up in, in Troy, let's say, or Schaghticoke, or Brunswick, or East Greenbush, or wherever, you might not have had that much exposure to some of the international scene. So to be exposed to that and to maybe make some friends from other countries around the world, it's a wonderful thing. So credit to Dr. Ramsammy and his team for pursuing this,” McLaughlin said.
