Work Ready Programs with Curt Rendall of Heartland Community College
On episode #38 of the Building BN podcast, CEO Patrick Hoban sits down to speak with Curt Rendall, Executive Director of Work Ready Program Development and Innovation at Heartland Community College. Rendall filled this role at HCC in 2019, excited to relocate to the Bloomington- Normal area because, he explains, it “seemed like a really vibrant [location], where you get the best of the big city life, but then the best of a quiet small town where everybody knows everybody so well.”
A vital part of Rendall’s developer role at Heartland includes keeping track of changing workforce trends within the community. He explains, “One big part of [program development] is having the pulse on the industry and what the needs are, where the bottlenecks are, and identifying what's the pathway forward. There are so many different ways we can solve a problem. Then the question is, what's the best solution, the most practical solution? So we can take that back to the team at Heartland and decide if it's a continuing customized training solution or we're building a whole program on the credit side.”
Additionally, Rendall explains, ensuring that students enrolling in HCC programs are successful is another key component of Heartland’s Work Ready Programs. He says, “We want to make sure that everyone coming into our programs has the resources they need to be successful in the program. With everything that's going on in life, you know, you're not just a student, you're not just an employee. You've got kids, you've got family members. You're taking care of your parents... And then you've got to make it out to school. It's exciting to pull that together, getting the community partners around and getting the support for our students.”
Rendall explains that the Work Ready programs are able to be customized, according to the needs of the community. He says, “Anything that you don't need a college credit for necessarily, you know, we can work to bring in subject matter experts, either locally from the company itself or nationally to build those training programs.” Heartland, their website explains, “currently offers 42 Work Ready Career and Technical stackable certificates leading to immediate careers or building towards an Associate’s degree.”
For more information about HCC’s Work Ready programs, visit https://www.heartland.edu /Work/index.html. Heartland also offers career services — including career coaching — which can be accessed at https://www.heartland.edu/careerConnections/careerCoach.html. For more information about the new Electric Vehicle – Energy Storage (EVES) Manufacturing Training Academy at HCC, enrolling for Fall 2021, visit https://www.heartland.edu/ev/MTA.html. Listen to the entire conversation, on episode #38 of Building BN, here.
