Lone Star Corporate College, which is based at the University Park location, helps current and future employees of businesses in the college system’s service areas gain the knowledge and skills they need to shift careers or get promoted, according to LSCS officials.
By partnering with local businesses and corporations, Corporate College connects people to their desired career paths.
“Probably the most important thing that Corporate College does is build relationships with companies,” said Linda Head, associate vice chancellor of workforce and corporate partnerships. “Why it exists is to have an arm of the college that’s working with employers—midsize and corporate size—so that they will know what the community college is all about.”
There are four components of Corporate College: customized technical training, professional development and certification preparation, employer services, and corporate and community partnerships.
“We’re trying to armor the student with not just a certificate or a degree from Lone Star, or not just customized training from Lone Star, but we’re trying to embed the training so they can sit for a certification exam,” Head said.
Hubert Hillman, a Corporate College instructor specializing in machining, has 35 years of oil field manufacturing experience and has been teaching for Corporate College since 2009.
“They get a higher skill level, so now they can do that job that nobody wants to do or they can’t find that person for,” Hillman said. “When [students] come out of one of the credit courses, they’re not a machinist, but they’re ready to be trained. Same thing with our certificate programs—now they know the basics, but they can absorb what they get on the job.”
In The Woodlands area, businesses, such as Baker Hughes, ExxonMobil and Anadarko Petroleum Company, have tapped Corporate College’s services, Head said. Technical labs in the area are available at LSC-Conroe Center, LSC-Montgomery and LSC-Creekside Center.
“We also have to stay in tune to the zillions of small businesses in The Woodlands area and in our whole Lone Star College service area,” Head said. “We have money available right now for a small business that has 99 employees or less, and the money will pay for the owner or full-time people in their company to take any class at [LSCS]—credit, noncredit or customized just for their business—paid for by the state.”
Corporate College relies on involvement from local employers to connect students to jobs but also to sit on the college’s advisory boards, Head said.
“Employers like us because we are a community college,” Head said. “Most of our funding is through taxes—state and local—and we’re not trying to make money. We’re trying to provide a service to the employers and to the community, so our tuition is low.”
20515 Hwy. 249, Bldg. 11, Ste. 11200, Houston
281-296-7827
www.lonestar.edu/corporatecollege
