UCI to Open Satellite Center in Anaheim : Education: The extension-studies campus will offer non-credit, mostly night courses. The emphasis will be on job skills and retraining.

By next fall, residents of north Orange County can improve their job skills, prepare for new jobs or learn more about the arts when UC Irvine opens its first satellite extension program, university official said Thursday.

The satellite campus will be in Anaheim, in temporary quarters on Broadway between Clementine and Lemon streets, said Dr. Melvin E. Hall, dean of university extension. It will move to permanent facilities in 15 to 18 months.

UCI Extension, a non-credit certificate program that offers mostly night courses, now serves between 13,000 and 14,000 students a year on the Irvine campus, Hall said.

While this is the first satellite campus, Hall said that it will not be the only one.

“We hope in a few years to open a South County satellite south of the El Toro ‘Y,’ and make our courses and services convenient to anyone in the county,” he said.

In Irvine, most extension classes meet once a week for three hours, over a 10-week period. Costs for the courses range from $195 to $300 per course, depending on materials. There are also mini-courses, mostly in the arts and humanities, which run from four to six weeks and cost $85, Hall said.

In the temporary quarters, most of the courses will be offered in the evenings, Hall said, with daytime classes added later.

UCI’s extension program began when the university opened its doors 27 years ago, said Hall, who has headed the program for the past five years. At first, the emphasis was on arts and culture, but over the years, the emphasis has shifted to work-related offerings, a trend which has accelerated with recent changes in the Southern California economy.

Among the most popular offerings, taught by a part-time faculty of 600, are engineering, business management, international business and competitive manufacturing operations.

“A major focus of our coming to Anaheim is to assist people who have been laid off or are concerned about the stability of their employment,” Hall said.

The goal of the Anaheim campus is “to provide ongoing support to economic development; assist in the redeployment of the county’s skilled work force; continue to aid the development of the county’s small- and medium-size businesses; and support the ethnically diverse communities located in North County,” extension officials said in a statement.

Curricula will focus on “leading-edge topics, high-tech issues and advanced concepts in all course work,” the statement said.

Although at UCI Extension “we try not to get in the job-placement business,” Hall said. Having 400 representatives of Orange County companies on advisory committees helping to develop the curriculum is “a good reason why our certificates are so popular.”

Hall said that UCI Extension has begun applying for new federal funds made available to help retrain displaced workers, as well as those workers who have received company buyouts who want to start small businesses.