Business & Industry Services

Overview

Reaching For Opportunities – And Finding Them Here

The MxCC Center for Business & Industry Services, CBIS, is about opportunities. It was founded as part of the Continuing Education division of the Connecticut Community College system in response to a shortage of comprehensive workforce training in the state – and today it celebrates 20 years of service to the business community.

Responding To Your Training Needs

CBIS is proud to offer a variety of custom-designed training services to individuals and businesses of all sizes, plus consultation services, information gathering and referral, workshops, multimedia production and more. We respond to employees and employers’ training needs with a variety of dynamic services targeting business growth and success.

• CBIS served about 3,500 people in the local communities and distributed hundreds of thousands of its video productions nationwide – in the past year, alone.
• In 2007 the Center’s media services division produced 25 videos for organizations. It also provided training to advanced manufacturing technologies firms, structural design companies and service organizations.

“The CBIS serves two general purposes. It serves employers in advancing the skills of their workforce without having to go find people who are skilled, and functions as a retention tool in that,” -- Fred Andrews, Dean of Workforce Development, Continuing Education and Community Services. “It also helps individuals enhance their own skills and therefore serves in workforce development in its truest sense.”

MxCC aligns workforce data, industry cluster performance and national trends to develop and deliver customized workforce training programs, business needs assessment, and consultation services through its CBIS division.

Program content is customized to meet the needs and objectives of businesses – whether they have 10 or 10,000 employees. Programs meet at any MxCC sites, including Middletown, Old Saybrook and The Meriden Center – online, or at the employment site.

The Business & Industry Services Network directors can help define your training needs, then design and deliver complete programs to meet those needs.

Cutting-Edge CBIS Stays One Step Ahead

To meet future workforce demands and the needs of the changing business climate, the future focus of CBIS includes:

• Expanding training for Allied Health careers
• Green technician training for manufacturing careers, green construction
• Expanding media services programs to serve a variety of media contracts

The CBIS establishes partnerships with business organizations such as chambers of commerce, state and non-profit agencies. It is the business-training arm of the college, working with the community as an economic development engine.

CBIS is considered an outstanding, state-of-the-art division. It is a multifaceted division that works through community involvement, outreach and consulting.

Training is provided at the college's sites in Middletown and Meriden or at the client's on-site location. For information about CBIS and the Business & Industry Services Network, call (860) 343-5710.

How Does it Work?

Workforce development experts at the CBIS collaborate with company representatives, assess work force needs and related skill requirements. Together they determine if any of the hundreds of existing college instructional programs and courses fit the employer’s training staff.

When a custom training program is needed, hands-on, job based curricula is developed based on the employer’s job classification, skills requirements and production or product development schedule. Curriculum specialists can develop competency-based instruction in conjunction with the employer’s training staff.

In both training options, “tailoring” existing programs, courses and workshops, or “customizing” a training program for a specific business or employer, instruction can be designed to achieve optimal human resource and professional development goals. Training can be delivered for credit, non-credit or as Continuing Education Units (see Continuing Education).

Points of Pride

• 2007 Telly Award for Organic Landcare Practices DVD produced for State DEP.
• State of the art visual media program.
• Division offers many sought-after programs.