I joined Berkeley College a little over two years ago as Director of Career Services for the Online Campus. I moved to my current role as Director of the Corporate Learning Partnership program in April of last year. In this most recent position, I am responsible for building relationships with companies to assist them with their employee development initiatives and the investment in their own future success by developing a better educated workforce.
I truly enjoy what I do here at Berkeley. Every day presents new goals and challenges! I spend much of my time on the road talking to employers who are partners and those who are considering a partnership arrangement with us. I also spend a good deal of time meeting associates of our partnering firms. It’s a great feeling to speak one-on-one with someone who dreams of earning a college degree and to feel that I can actually do something to help them achieve that goal.
What is a Corporate Learning Partnership?
The Corporate Learning Partnership (CLP) program is designed to help companies champion the development of their employees by allowing them to offer their associates a reduction in tuition at any onsite location of Berkeley College as well as Berkeley College Online. Many of the companies I speak to are those that are already offering tuition reimbursement assistance. For those firms, the tuition assistance provided by the employer in addition to the CLP reduction provided by Berkeley can make all the difference when an employee contemplates a possible college career. In addition, to assist their associates with the cost of educating their families, our partners can also extend the CLP tuition reduction to the immediate family members of their associates. We believe that the flexibility we offer at Berkeley makes us an ideal partner to companies employing adult learners who, for whatever reason, have yet to have earned their college degrees. In these tougher economic times when people are pulled in so many directions—both personally, financially, and professionally—Berkeley College can offer our CLP associates the flexibility that can help them succeed and reach their educational goals.
Other benefits of a CLP partnership include immediate access to our Career Services team for internship and recruitment assistance, access to our ground and virtual job fairs, and a dedicated corporate contact who can assist them with any kind of customized training needs our partnering companies may need or are tasked to produce.
Do you see alumni as a vital part of your work?
Absolutely, without question!
Our best endorsements come from our alumni. We have acquired a number of CLP partners from alumni in all types of positions—from HR to accounting to marketing to reception and more. In more instances than those I can count, our alumni have opened the doors to companies that we may not have been able to reach otherwise. As we say in Career Management class, it’s all about networking! So the network we have built with our alumni has proven to be integral to the success of the CLP program. Who better to explain all that Berkeley is to a company or a co-worker than a Berkeley alumnus!
What are some of your priorities for the upcoming year?
My priorities include the continued growth of the CLP program. When I first started, we had 36 partners. We now have 59 partnering companies, and the program continues to grow. I also continue to nurture the relationships already established with our current CLPs to ensure the benefit we offer CLP associates is communicated to them. We have recently developed all kinds of material that is available to our partnering firms to assist with the communication of the tuition reduction benefit to our CLP associates. Lastly, my personal priority is to stay in touch with CLP students currently enrolled at Berkeley to ensure they are on track to accomplishing what they originally set out to do—earn a college degree--which leads me to my ultimate goal of welcoming them to the family of Berkeley College alumni.
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