GLENDALE : College Center Turns Focus to Job Retraining

During World War II, Glendale Community College’s technical education building was a place where machinists were trained to build military equipment.

Nowadays, college officials tout the state-of-the-art technological training that goes on within its walls.

The building, which underwent a $2.5-million renovation and expansion last year and was renamed the Advanced Technology Center, is helping the college become a leading provider not only of college degree and certificate programs in the technical trades, but also of employee retraining services, college officials say.

“Other schools do this kind of stuff, but we believe this college is the largest provider of this kind of retraining in the country,” said Keith Caruso, director of the college’s center for applied competitive technology.

The college’s Professional Development Center has trained about 15,000 workers in recent years. With the Advanced Technology Center, college officials said the types of training offered now include computer-assisted drafting and manufacturing engineering skills needed by defense contractors trying to diversify in the post-Cold War market.

Ken Patton, dean of career education, said the college also hopes to keep the center technologically up to date at minimal cost by becoming an equipment demonstration center for the private sector. Manufacturers of computers, machining and manufacturing equipment could loan or lease their new equipment to the college, which would show it to those businesses using the center for retraining.

That way, he said, college students would also be exposed to the latest technology.

“We have 6,000 businesses and manufacturing companies that we deal with,” Patton said. “We can offer an equipment manufacturer a built-in clientele.”

The Advanced Technology Center offers two-year college degrees and certificates in electronic and computer design, engineering design, welding and metallurgy, manufacturing technology and architecture.

College officials said the equipment and software used in most areas of training is top-notch, although the architecture program is using Autocad drafting programs for the first year. In all areas, students get hands-on training, designing actual parts on a computer or putting them together in the machine or welding shop.

Paul Dozois, an engineering professor, said one of the biggest improvements the new center offers is simply that it is much larger than the old building, making it possible to accept students into programs that were previously impacted.

“It’s nice to have a room where I don’t have to turn away students anymore. With the job market so competitive, we didn’t like having to say no to them,” Dozois said.