Workforce Strategies

Encouraging News for the Workforce Pipeline in Massachusetts

At the annual meeting of the MassMEP Board of Directors, Kathy Rentsch, Dean for the School for Business, Engineering, & Technology at Quinsigamond Community College, shared very encouraging news about the technical workforce pipeline in Massachusetts. Despite growing concern that middle-skills  jobs – those that require more than a high school education but less than a four year degree – have been forgotten, QCC is increasing enrollments year over year in mechatronics, manufacturing, photonics, IT/IS, HVAC, engineering and computer science. In fact, QCC has grown enrollment in engineering, engineering technology, and computing programs from 427 students in Fall 2005 to 1,141 students in Fall 2015.

QCC’s family of programs supports manufacturing sector workforce development across the continuum, from R&D to production to energy efficiency.

Dean Rentsch recognized the strong commitment of QCC’s trustees and executive leadership team and attributed this growth in technical programs to the strength of QCC’s collaboration with industry, education, and governmental partners across the region, state, and country.

With the recent opening of the QCC QuEST Center – a $23 million engineering, science, and technology learning laboratory – installation of a CNC Technology Lab on Main Campus, and ambitious plans for its Innovative Technology Acceleration Center (ITAC) in Southbridge, the college is poised to accelerate this growth in collaboration with its partners, most notably MassMEP.