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Enterprise Minnesota Magazine - December 2011
HELPING MANUFACTURERS GROW PROFITABLY
4 Questions with Kevin Kopischke
Position: President of Alexandria Technical and Community College.
Role: Kevin Kopischke has worked in higher education for more than 30 years, most recently serving as college president for the past eight years. He is the long-time chairman of the Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission.
How does Alexandria Technical and Community College—and other Minnesota State Colleges & Universities (McSCU) schools—prepare students to meet the needs of employers?
The whole conscience of connecting the college with the community really began when it opened back in 1961. The college was designed to make sure we provide a well-trained workforce that is targeted to the west-central communities
near Alexandria.
As we’ve grown, that connection has really been the nerve center for the college. We have very strong advisory committees that inform program faculty on making sure the skill sets graduates have are the skill sets needed by those industries. And these committees support the college with donations of equipment, technology, and subject matter experts who can get involved.
How is the college working to address the workforce skills shortage in Minnesota?
As K-12 budgets have shrunk, the first programs that disappear are the career and technical programs. We need to re-partner with K-12 to try to instill in students, and the schools themselves, the opportunity to know what career options are out there. They need to start thinking, ‘Would I be interested in a health career, or what about computers, or machine tool technology?’ We’re bringing in about 500 high school students from the region to tour the college and manufacturing companies to build awareness for careers in manufacturing. We also have a summer camp for high school counselors to make sure they know what we do at a community and technical college.
What role do public-private partnerships play in advancing the college’s mission?
They play a big role. I’ve been the chair of the Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission for the past 10 years. It brings together all the players to drive economic development in Alexandria and west-central Minnesota. We put together the Packing Machine Manufacturers Consortium. Alec is a mini Silicon Valley for the packaging machine industry; we have about 10 internationally recognized firms that build packaging machines for companies like Frito-Lay and Kellogg. The consortium pools its resources for noncompetitive recruiting of talented employees, and it raises money and donates funds to invest in technology that goes into student programs.
What would you like industry to know about how community colleges prepare the next generations of workers?
Our new chancellor, Steven Rosenstone, has put together a strategic framework. One of the most important components is to be the partner of choice to meet Minnesota’s workforce and community needs. Rural regional colleges like Alexandria have to be tight partners with their communities if we want the economic vitality of rural Minnesota to continue to grow.
We also want them to know that we need their financial support. In 2012 MnSCU received 48 percent less funding from the state than we did in 2000. We’re doing a whole lot more with less and we need to make sure industry understands that they need to be at the table if our programs are going to be successful. Technology programs are the most expensive. They need to sit back and say, ‘How can we help and support students who might be interested in these things as well?’
©2011, Enterprise Minnesota. All rights reserved.Reproduction encouraged after obtaining permission from EnterpriseMinnesota. Additional Magazines and reprints available for purchase.
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