Pierpont Community & Technical College - 2019 PFEP College of Excellence Award Winner

 We asked nominator, Bo Sellers, Director of Marketing & Public Relations at PCTC, how the college has demonstrated excellence in collaborating with industry in their region.

He told us about the following:

"Pierpont Community & Technical College has made great strides in providing Northcentral West Virginia with innovative leadership in developing sustainable industry partnerships for entrepreneurship that is essential for businesses, students, and communities to thrive. Through our community outreach efforts, we have created partnerships and collaborations with our regional industries that create opportunities to further entrepreneurship on our various campuses and in many local communities with career training initiatives and resources.

 

A hallmark of our technical education is partnering with local business and industry to identify subject matter experts to utilize in the classroom as adjunct professors; these entrepreneurs bring the "real world" into our classrooms and provide an excellent environment for learning. We have instructors in our classrooms from regional hospitals, underground mining operations, oil and gas operations, and electrical energy generation and distribution.

 

We currently have partnerships in place with companies such as FirstEnergy, Pratt Whitney, Chevron, Dominion Energy, Murray Energy Corporation, The Greenbrier Resort, Ruby Memorial Hospital, Mon Health Medical Center, and many others who value our relationship and support our efforts.

 

We also offer continuing education programs specifically for entrepreneurs; a great example of this is our Federal Acquisition Management Program designed for small businesses with a desire to conduct contract services for the federal government.

 

President Johnny M. Moore has led our institution by proactively working with policymakers to advocate for entrepreneurship in our local communities, with state representatives, and on the national level. Pierpont has been recognized as an entrepreneurial college through publicity efforts featuring our students and has had articles highlighting our efforts and accomplishments. As an institution of higher learning, we feel it is our duty to share and promote the importance of entrepreneurship education through Op/Ed articles and presenting at regional and national conferences. We recently initiated conversations with MVB Bank and Harrison County Schools to incorporate entrepreneurship curriculum into their K-12 classrooms.

 

At Pierpont Community & Technical College, we believe it is our responsibility to prepare the rising workforce with the knowledge and skills to meet the needs of the 21st Century economy. This can only be accomplished by including the urgent need for an entrepreneurship education if West Virginia is to become relevant in an ever-changing economy. With the help of NACCE, we can provide entrepreneurial education to the region that creates a healthy and growing entrepreneurial learning environment."