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Education Briefs
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Business New Haven
11/29/1999
By: BNH
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We Gather Together
A new Connecticut Business Training Networks grant program has been created to help small and mid-sized employers create and maintain a skilled workforce. The networks are five or more independent firms (of fewer than 500 employees each) who apply as a group for grants of as much as $85,000 to train workers. Companies in each network will typically be in similar industries - the first approved network, “Spring Training in Connecticut, LLC,” comprises five small spring manufacturers in the Bristol area - and may be geographically close to one another.
The effort is a partnership of the Governor's Council on Economic Competitiveness & Technology, CBIA, the state's departments of Economic & Community Development and Labor, and the Connecticut Economic Resource Center. To learn more, call 860-244-1900.
Earning an 800 in Voluntarism
If there's one thing Yalies are really good at, it's taking SATs. Now, some 15 Yale students are putting that skill to work tutoring New Haven high-schools in SAT preparation as part of Dwight Hall's Future Bound/Project SAT program. Each Yale volunteer spends two afternoon hours a week teaching sophomores and juniors at Wilbur Cross and Hillhouse high schools. Lesson plans are based on Kaplan and other SAT-review materials the program volunteers collect, plus the students' requests for reviews on difficult sections.
Wilbur Cross Assistant Principal Angel Muniz told the Yale Daily News that although 74 percent of Wilbur Cross graduates go on to post-secondary education, most finish at technical schools and community colleges, such as New Haven's Gateway College. Only 62 percent of students take the SAT. “Deciding to go [to college] is like deciding to go to Mars for a lot of them,” said Tom Sugrue, youth liaison counselor at Wilbur Cross, told the YDN. The majority of Wilbur Cross kids have no family members with a college education, said Sugrue. Best of all, unlike Kaplan, it's free to the participating high-schoolers.
Wave of the Future
The Connecticut State University System November 18 unveiled a new online Master of Library Science (MLS) degree program to be offered through the Southern Connecticut State University Department of Library Science & Instructional Technology. The new degree program, aided by a $150,000 grant award from eCollege.com, is a first in New England for library science and only the second master's-level online program in any discipline in Connecticut. The new MLS program falls under the auspices of OnlineCSU, the state system's distance-learning initiative. OnlineCSU began last autumn with 71 students, and one year later had jumped to 377 students - a 531-percent increase.
An $81,000 Carrot
An $81,000 state grant has been awarded to the New Haven public schools in recognition for improvement in scores on the Connecticut Mastery Test. The grant is an incentive for schools to boost scores on the annual test battery, and is designed to be used for that purpose. The state this year will distribute $1.5 million to school systems statewide, a 33-percent increase over the sum awarded last year. The $81,000 New Haven earned was the largest single award, based on the size of the increase in students meeting state goals on the reading, writing and mathematics tests, as well as number of pupils enrolled in the system. The Connecticut Mastery Test is given to students in the fourth, sixth and eighth grades.
English Accent for SCSU Biz School
Southern Connecticut State University has launched a partnership with Bournemouth University of Dorset, England, to encourage business students to pursue graduate studies abroad, with an ultimate goal of gaining the credentials necessary to practice accounting overseas. Though designed for accounting majors, students at both universities who have graduated with an undergraduate degree in business will be invited to participate in the program, which commences with the summer 2000 semester.
SCSU grads would attend Bournemouth's School of Finance & Law to complete graduate studies and prepare for the Certified Accountancy exam. At the same time, English students would attend SCSU to pursue an MBA/Accounting Option and prepare for the Connecticut Uniform Certified Public Accountancy exam. Degrees will be granted by the university attended. With about 11,000 students, Bournemouth offered England's first undergraduate degree program in financial services, and is the only institution in that country to participate in AFECA, a Europe-wide association for accounting students.
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