Workforce Development with HCC's Dr. Keith Cornille
Heartland Community College, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2021, is the youngest community college in Illinois. It serves district 540 — a geographic corridor that extends along Interstate Highway 55 from Pontiac to Lincoln — with campuses in Normal, Lincoln, and Pontiac. From Heartland’s website, the community college has four priorities:
promoting student success
serving as a community resource
ensuring resource stewardship
modeling effective communication, collaboration and transparency
At their campuses in Normal, Lincoln, and Pontiac, the college strives to provide accessible, innovative learning opportunities that enrich the community.
On episode #30 of the Building BN podcast, CEO Patrick Hoban sat down to talk with Heartland Community College President, Dr. Keith Cornille. Cornille, a current member of the EDC Board of Directors, has been Heartland’s president since 2018. He came to Bloomington Normal, having worked in higher education for over thirty-five years in various roles, though predominantly community and technical college environments. Cornille himself is an alumni of an Illinois community college. At Heartland, Cornille is responsible for the administration, operation, and development of the college.
Speaking about how the college rises up to meet the ever-evolving challenges of the Bloomington-Normal community, Cornille said, “We have in our mission a responsibility as far as an obligation for two primary things. One is to provide higher education to all individuals that will want it, whether that's for them to transfer or to go into the workforce. The second thing that we definitely have an obligation to is to be responsive to community needs. So we have to hear what those are and then we have to adjust and change our programs on a dime.”
One Heartland program that Cornille mentions is the dual credit program, College Now, available to students in 17 different high schools within the community college district. It allows high school students to earn college credit while still in high school. The classes are currently offered in various ways, including online, through the Bloomington Area Career Center, and directly in high school classrooms.
Heartland also offers continuing education programs, working in some instances directly with area employers to develop customized workforce training. The ultimate goal is to help those who want to become work-ready. The Office of Work Ready Program Development and Innovation was established at Heartland in 2019 and has developed approximately 40 different types of stackable credentials and certificates that relate directly to the workforce needs of the community.
You can listen to the entire interview with Dr. Keith Cornille here. For information regarding any of the programs mentioned that are offered at Heartland, click here. For questions about Heartland, go here.
