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Local College And Chamber Sign Partnership Agreements With Empire State College

The president of Empire State College was in Plattsburgh today to sign separate partnership agreements with the local chamber of commerce and the community college.
Local elected and educational officials gathered outside the North Country Chamber of Commerce to watch the chamber president, and the leaders of Clinton Community College and SUNY Empire State, sign agreements they say will enhance educational opportunities for the region’s residents.

With the signing of the agreement students at Clinton Community College can be automatically enrolled in Empire State College. President Jim Malatras says this agreement focuses on two degree programs to address employment needs.  “First area is addiction studies. Sadly that is an area that we have to spend a tremendous amount of time on ‘cause many of our communities are still dealing with the struggles of addiction. We’re going to take the students from Clinton County Community College, enter them and enroll them into our first four year Bachelor’s of Science in Addiction studies. They’re going to get application fees waived. They’ll get a little scholarship from us and they’ll be able to finish that really quickly and especially on-line or in person.  The second piece is nursing. There’s a requirement in New York state now that RN’s have to become BSN’s, get a Bachelor’s in nursing, within ten years. But more than that there’s a great need for nurses all across this state. We need something like 30,000 new nurses in the next ten years.”

Clinton Community College President Ray DiPasquale says the new partnership will allow students to seamlessly transfer with up to 79 credits.  “It’s called Pathways Transfer Program. And it’s just that. It’s a transfer pathway to SUNY Empire. You think about nursing and our students will absolutely have a seamless transfer from their Associate’s degree in nursing directly to the nursing program and a BSN. Not only will the current graduates and students who are attending but students who’ve been out and have a nursing degree can do the same.”

Empire State College also signed an agreement with the North Country Chamber that President and CEO Garry Douglas says will allow business members to take advantage of education and skills training.   “We hear from a lot of our employers and our manufacturers and we’re helping to address it in ways that we can. This will be a new way. The need for supervisory training for management training and there’s some excellent programs, a lot of excellent programs, at Empire State College including things like Manufacturing Management and Human Resource Management that we look forward to getting out to our companies and having them make their folks aware and encourage them, perhaps even underwrite them where possible, to take some of these courses and enhance their management skills. A lot of other programs as well but those stand out in particular in terms of our knowledge of what our employers need in the area.”

Away from his position beside Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the recent daily coronavirus briefings, Malatras says Empire State College has partnered with most community colleges across the state and each agreement is tailored to the workforce needs of the region.

 

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