The North Country Career Center Adult Services Department

Northeast Kingdom Learning Services is now collaborating with the North Country Career Center (NCCC) to provide management services of the Adult Services Department. The Adult Services Coordinator, an employee of NEKLS, oversees the operation of the Adult Services Department. The NCCC and Adult Services Department is one of Vermont's Regional Technical Education Centers providing Career and Technical Education programs.

The Career and Technical Education program plays a central role in the State Board of Education and Department of Education goal of improving students' secondary education experiences. Secondary, post-secondary, and adult technical education services are provided through technical centers, comprehensive high schools, and public and private colleges. The state is required by 16 V.S.A. § 1531 to oversee technical education, to ensure that it is coordinated with academic education, to make it accessible to adult and high school students, and to coordinate it with workforce development efforts.

The department meets these responsibilities and supports continuous improvement in technical education by:

• Setting high program standards that incorporate academic and industry standards;
• Developing student assessments that lead to industry credentials;
• Developing and upgrading programs to provide students with skills needed in the workplace;
• Providing professional development for instructors to stay current with new approaches to programming, developments in industry, and instructional technologies;
• Action planning driven by student performance.

The adult services department supports regional efforts for quality, life style compatible, economic development. The coordinator is a member of the regional Workforce Investment Board (WIB). The WIB is responsible for cooperation with the Vermont Department of Labor (VDOL) to ascertain regional employer training needs and to distribute the findings and facilitate service delivery.

The department also has a statutorily mandated Regional Advisory Board (RAB) comprised primarily of Orleans County business people. This board is the department's vital link to the local business community. Generally, the department develops trainings and courses in response to Board suggestions. The RAB also reviews and recommends adoption of the department's annual action plan. This plan is then submitted by the North Country Career Center director and Adult Services department coordinator to the North Country Union High School Board for approval. The Adult Services department schedules classes on a semester basis; Fall, Spring and Summer. Offerings include both courses that complete the skill training with one course and sequential courses for skills training that requires instruction for more than a single semester. There is a fee for all department courses. However, tuition grants are available for most students. Most such grants originate with state agencies such as VDOL. In other instances, fees are paid by employers. The Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) also provides grants and loans.

For more information, the coordinator should be contacted.

Telephone: 1-802-334-7140
Email: eileenilluzzi@ncuhs.org

The relationship between the Career Center and NEKLS is unique in Vermont. It demonstrates the NEKLS belief in public/private partnership as the best method to deliver high quality, cost effective services with most procedural barriers (such as multiple assessments and registrations) removed and instruction clearly relevant to personal economic independence and positive community economic development. It is a partnership that is working.