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College Central Network connects students, employers

Nov 21, 2019

Rockingham Community College has joined College Central Network, an online platform that connects employers with job seekers not only among the student body and alumni, but in the community.

“This is a really important development, which centralizes the process for notifying students about local positions. For a while, the process has been, shoot me an email and I’ll post it,” said Chelsea Cromartie, assistant director of Counseling and Career Services at RCC. “It’s part of the ‘best practices’ used by a majority of community colleges in our system.”

CCN connects members to local jobs as well as national jobs and internships via JobsCentral and InternCentral.

“The process is simple: they register for free at CollegeCentral.com/rockinghamcc. After completing the profile, they receive a confirmation and can immediately install and use the CCN. All registered can then interact with career services, as well as search for and apply to jobs,” Cromartie said.

CCN also provides the quickest way to sign up for career fairs, workshops, and résumé reviews, and to schedule appointments with Career Service staff. CCN also pushes out customized, relevant content for RCC. Plus, Job Agent automatically matches jobs to an individual’s profile.

With CCN, members can also schedule appointments with RCC’s career advisors; sign up for workshops, job fairs, and events, including those that feature employers visiting campus for interview and information sessions; and access extensive job search and career advice resources.

“There is a lot of information from employers about what they need in their workforce, and a lot of what I’ve heard is that students and people within their workforce are not really prepared with the necessary soft skills,” Cromartie said. “This platform has embedded within it, different professional development opportunities such as podcasts, webinars, and on-demand tutorials that members can utilize.”

For example, highly ranked CCN podcasts feature over 100 short but concise 6-minute dives into specific career topics and are perfect to listen to between classes or while commuting. There are also more than 400 career-related articles.

“This is another tool that allows us to provide professional development opportunities outside of the college. It also connects the college with the community because community members have access to the platform and tool,” Cromartie said. “We also work a lot with NC Works of Reidsville and Goodwill of Central North Carolina and this is a way we’ll all be able to communicate with one another and share job opportunities on this one platform.

In addition, some of RCC’s programs require portfolios from their students, which can be uploaded to CCN. Other programs require internships, which can be found on CCN.

“Students can present themselves digitally to employers, so they can see them in action,” said Louis McIntyre, RCC’s Title III project director. “So, if a student wants to apply for a job as a machinist, the employer can actually see them doing some work, and see a product of their effort.”

CCN will also track graduates.

“We prepare students here at RCC to go out into the workforce but it’s difficult to follow up as to where these people go,” McIntyre said. “This platform will allow us to track data on former students, and what employers we are attracting where students go to work. Currently, a lot of it is manufacturing, customer service and health science positions.”

Cromartie reiterated how great it is that CCN is available to the community.

“Anyone can go onto the job board. But if it’s a position that requires an Associate Degree, because the platform is connected to the RCC website, it’s easy to find what’s available at the college. It’s a revolving door of academic programs that we offer,” Cromartie said. “I think it’s awesome, and I’m really excited about the different things available to students and alumni. This is something they get to keep forever.”

To date, over 6 million jobs have been posted on College Central Network, and over one million employers have registered and actively recruit through CCN.

All current students have been pre-registered in the platform, and alumni from summer and spring have been uploaded and have received emails.

Cromartie is also contacting employers, starting with those who participated in RCC’s Career Expo in April. Any employers in the area can sign up, and Cromartie makes approvals prior to enabling their access.

“We’re so excited to launch CCN and are equally excited to join CCN’s NC Community & Technical College Jobs Consortium,” Cromartie said.

While RCC’s membership in CCN is funded by Continuing and Technical Education and American Association of Community Colleges MentorLinks grant, membership in the Consortium is provided at no additional cost.

“Collectively, we’re actively working to grow and retain North Carolina’s emerging workforce by providing unprecedented access to our state’s employers and jobs,” Cromartie said.

Rockingham Community College invites employers to register at CollegeCentral.com/rockinghamcc and post job opportunities and other content for free, and invites job seekers in the community to sign up for free as well.

For more information, contact Cromartie at cromartiec4810@rockinghamcc.edu or 336-342-4261 ext. 2100.

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Gerri Hunt is director of public information at Rockingham Community College. She can be reached at huntg0780@rockinghamcc.edu or 336-342-4261 ext. 2170.

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Rockingham Community College
PO Box 38
215 Wrenn Memorial Rd.
Wentworth, NC 27375

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