“Our universities will continue to respond to the changing needs of the Commonwealth,” said State System Chancellor James H. McCormick. “We are actively engaged in a variety of workforce development initiatives and in helping to ensure that Pennsylvania companies have the trained workers they need to be successful in the future.”

In addition to the many campus-based programs, Shippensburg University since 1992 has offered its master’s degree program in information systems at the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg. Forty students currently are enrolled in the program, which is offered in three 12-week sessions each year.

Many of the students in the program now are employed by some of the region’s major companies, including Capital Blue Cross and Pennsylvania Blue Shield, Chromalloy, Gannett Fleming, PHICO, Rite Aid and Unisys.

A new upper-division program in computer science designed for working adults will be offered at the Dixon Center beginning this fall. The new program is being developed in cooperation with Elizabethtown College, a private, liberal arts college that has offered undergraduate courses at the center for several years.

The Dixon Center also is working with IBM Corp. on a Workforce Resource Network to help address the on-going learning needs of workers in the information age.

The public/private partnership will include the development of a “virtual network” with the capacity to offer a range of non-credit services anywhere in the state on an as-needed basis. The network will be market driven, with the flexibility to respond to the needs of employers.

The Fund for the Advancement of the State System of Higher Education Inc. also has formed a partnership with IBM and the System’s Office of Statewide Programs to sponsor the COBOL College. The non-credit program will teach the fundamentals of COBOL programming, including the principles of code correction and file modification, so that “graduates” will be able to help address the Year 2000 problem. A nationally recognized examination will be administered at the end of the program, and a certificate of completion will be awarded.

The Dixon Center on July 8 will host a “Summit Workshop” that will feature several panels of government, education, business and industry leaders who will talk about a variety of issues, including science and advanced technology education and workforce development.

The workshop is being sponsored by the State System Board of Governors’ Task Force for Science and Advanced Technology Education, Workforce Development and Implementation Research.

The task force was created in January to investigate ways to ensure that System graduates are technologically prepared for employment in the 21^st century. It also is to help contribute to workforce development in Pennsylvania, to increase university and business/industry partnerships and to investigate the feasibility of an industrial/institutional consortium that would develop an institute to address these issues.

One additional step recently taken by the State System is the establishment of the University Center for Southwest Pennsylvania in downtown Pittsburgh. The new center is part of a regional effort designed to “aggregate resources in order to place the region’s higher education assets and strengths in the service of economic development.”

The Southwest Center will make the resources of all 14 System universities accessible by serving as a point of contact for inquiries from new and expanding businesses and as a broker of education and training services, including executive education, management training and workforce development.

The State System of Higher Education comprises 14 universities throughout the Commonwealth, and is the largest provider of higher education in the state. One of every 29 Pennsylvanians is attending or is a graduate of a System university. The State System is the 17^th largest employer in the state, with more than 11,700 employees.

The 14 state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers.