County College & Morris County Chamber Join Forces on Workforce Pipeline
County College of Morris and the Morris County Chamber are aligning education with employer needs to build career pathways and boost economic growth.
The basics:
- CCM, Morris County Chamber have cultivated about 400 business collaborators
- New campus facilities are expanding training in manufacturing, culinary science, health
- More than 80% of CCM healthcare students reportedly have job offers before taking licensure exams
- CCM generated $586.1M in added regional income in fiscal 2022-23, a study found
Located in Randolph, the County College of Morris offers more than 50 associate degree programs, while its focus on career pathways, certificates and workforce development programs are strengthening the local talent pipeline.
Anthony Iacono leads CCM as its third president, a role he assumed Sept. 1, 2016. Around that same time, Meghan Hunscher took over as president and CEO at the Morris County Chamber of Commerce/Economic Development Corp. (The EDC operates as a division of MCCC). With a base of more than 700 member organizations, the constituency comprises organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.
Together, the leaders convened a series of industry roundtable discussions across a range of sectors (manufacturing, healthcare, technology, hospitality and more). “We brought them in and started a conversation that has continued ever since, which is, ‘Where are you today? Where are you going in your industries and what do you need?’ And can we partner to make that happen,” Iacono said, adding, “It’s been a huge, huge success story.”
In the past two years, alone, the Morris County Economic Development Corp. has brought about 100 local company representatives to CCM’s campus for such gatherings and to offer college and entrepreneur mentoring. And that was before the new Center for Entrepreneurship & Culinary Science opened this past spring.
Since Iacono’s tenure began, CCM has added, or begun work on, four new facilities. “All of those partnership buildings, they’re P3s, meaning they’re publicly funded and privately equipped,” he said.