Chattahoochee Valley Community College

Workforce Development

Chattahoochee Valley Community College was founded to respond to the needs of the region.  Now 35 years later, the College is preparing for a boom in population and an explosion of job opportunities due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), affecting Fort Benning.  

The new Dean of Workforce Development, Janet Ormond, says her daily thoughts revolve around the 16,000 new jobs resulting from developments at Fort Benning and the ripple effect in the private sector. 

“As dean of Workforce Development, it is my job to develop relationships with business and industry, gain an understanding of their training needs and then build credit and non-credit programs to meet those needs.” Ormond went on to say that she will work collaboratively with local economic developers and provide leadership for programs such as WorkKeys and the Alabama Career Readiness Certificate. She hopes to partner with local high schools to develop dual enrollment opportunities for career technical students and to share resources to meet training needs in the community.

Public Safety is one of the fields that CVCC believes should receive urgent attention.  Dean Ormond will supervise the Homeland Security program and the Public Safety Academy under development, according to CVCC President Laurel Blackwell.

“We’re going to try to do as much for the public in terms of serving our existing emergency responders as we will for our student population by holding seminars and other training events. So it’s more than just a degree program for the college; it’s for the entire community,” Ormond said.

Ormond began her career as a public school teacher, and although she spent 12 years in the industrial world, she never really left education behind. As an instructional technologist, first at a nuclear plant and later at a plastics manufacturer, she was heavily involved with developing training programs for workers.  She drew on her experience as the director of Wallace Community College’s Workforce Development Department and will do so again as dean at CVCC.

This article is the courtesy of Calista Sprague, Content Coordinator for Columbus and the Valley Magazine and Valley Parent Magazine.