McCormick says that while it's crucial to upgrade the skills of people in the workforce, it's also important for students who don't have jobs yet to hear directly from employers. "We do regular hiring fairs," he says, "and representatives from six IT organizations make presentations to students about what kinds of skills they are currently looking for."

Another feedback mechanism comes from the students themselves. Brian Cullen, another senior network analyst at Northwest, has taken classes at Inver Hills in Cisco and radio frequency technologies. "I'm always looking for ways to upgrade my skill levels," he says. "This gave me a chance to see some protocols I didn't work with on a day-to-day basis to see if they might be useful someday."

Cullen was pleased with the quality of the curriculum and instruction but notes that it's crucial that colleges stay current on the technologies employers are using. "I think Inver Hills gets that feedback," he says, "both from the employees of the companies in the grant program and from companies coming to campus to interview prospective students."

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Keeping faculty up to date