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College of the Canyons Department of Economic Development
Who We Are
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College of the Canyons Economic and Workforce Development Division brings the instructional resources of the College to the community through flexible, responsive, demand-driven solutions to our 300+ business and industry partners.
The Division began with the establishment of the Employee Training Institute in 1989. That year, in response to requests from the business community and its own desires to be the “trainer of choice” for the Santa Clarita Valley, the College led a “Vision 2000” luncheon with over 100 business leaders. Led by John Hoskinson, President of Gruber Systems, support from local businesses demonstrated strong demand for customized job training, workforce development services and development of business-college partnerships to upgrade the local workforce.
The Employee Training Institute provides customized training to companies within the Santa Clarita Community College District. The Employee Training Institute’s role at the College was further defined in the 1991 College of the Canyons Strategic Plan, as it stated: “College of the Canyons will be recognized as the primary agency for retraining the segment of the workforce displaced through changing technology and economic conditions”. Further, the plan stated, “Our short-term training programs will be responsible for the majority of the technical upgrade training done in our Valley”.
In 1998, College of the Canyons established the Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT) through a grant from the California Community College’s Chancellors Office. One of only twelve such Centers in California, this award-winning Center has grown to be one of the top-performing centers in the state.
The College of the Canyons CACT initially focused its work with the aerospace industry to provide highly skilled engineer and technician level training in support of Boeing, Lockheed and other major corporations. One of the partners in this effort estimates that the project has saved approximately $20,000 in training costs for each engineer trained in this program and has been a factor the company’s business growth with Airbus Industries and other major prime aerospace companies. The College has also assisted smaller supply chain companies to streamline their operations, drive waste from their manufacturing processes, and upgrade their employees’ skills so that these small companies can become engines of growth in the aerospace industry. The College has leveraged state, local and federal funding of over $4,000,000 to support advanced manufacturing education and training in the Los Angeles region.
College of the Canyons internship program posts over 300 paid and unpaid work-based learning internship opportunities annually. In 2004, our internship partnership with the US Department of Defense was awarded Outstanding Work Experience Partnership in California. Internship partners cut across all industry sectors including film and entertainment, hospitality, multimedia, information technology, engineering and the life sciences.
A Regional Approach:
College of the Canyons Economic Development Division works on a regional level to support economic development by delivering programs that create a skilled workforce and a technologically competitive business base.
In 2004, the College developed two innovative regional projects in emerging technology clusters: digital manufacturing and biomedical device manufacturing. Led by College of the Canyons, the 126 Corridor Biotechnology Education and Training Collaborative project creates a comprehensive biotechnology training resource for industry through the establishment of laboratory and training facilities at either end of Highway 126. In late summer 2005, the College will open its Biotechnology Center in the Mann Biomedical Business Park, just 10 minutes from the COC campus.
A second regional project, the California Alliance for Digital Manufacturing, employs an innovative three-pronged approach to: meet regional industry need for qualified engineering technicians skilled in digital manufacturing machinery and operations; provide training and support for small business in integrating digital manufacturing practices into their operations; and link to high school and college programs to encourage engineering program enrollment as well as provide access to digital manufacturing equipment not otherwise available. Through the three main community college partners, Saddleback College in Orange County, Riverside College in Riverside County, and College of the Canyons in Los Angeles County, the project supports manufacturing in an eight county region of Southern California representing the highest concentration of manufacturing activity in the United States.
Our Mission
The mission of the Economic Development Division is to build relationships that are of educational value to our students, have economic value to the community, and increase the capacity of the College to achieve its mission.
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