Community Collaboration: A Creative Partnership with Catonsville Community College.

Catonsville Community College (CCC), in Maryland, has developed partnerships with business, industry, government, and other educational institutions to address the educational needs of the community. Programs established as a result of these partnerships include the following: (1) an automotive technology program sponsored by major automobile makers that provides students with new cars for training purposes, employment sponsorship, low tuition, paid cooperative experience, an associate degree, and high tech training; (2) designation by the AutoDesk company as an Authorized Training Center in computer-aided design, allowing CCC access to state of the art technology and providing annual upgrade training for faculty and credit and non-credit courses for students; (3) a school-to-work consortium with representatives from private industry and secondary and postsecondary institutions that focuses on encouraging high school students to continue their postsecondary education and providing them with a structured work experience; (4) an environmental technology education and training program with the Western School of Technology and Environmental Design, providing students interested in careers as environmental technicians with specialized training in environmental processes and technologies and workforce learning opportunities; and (5) dual and concurrent enrollment between CCC and the Baltimore County Public School system that enables high school students to enroll in community colleges during their junior and senior years. (TGI)