Stony Brook University's CET Program Eases Unemployment on LI

LongIsland.com

As a forerunner in education and innovation, Stony Brook University was one of the first academic institutions to respond to the recession of 2008 by instituting the Corporate Education Training (CET) Transitional Certificate Training Program, ...

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As a forerunner in education and innovation, Stony Brook University was one of the first academic institutions to respond to the recession of 2008 by instituting Corporate Education Training (CET) Transitional Certificate Training Program, designed to retrain Long Island’s workforce for new jobs and positions.

Since its inception in 2009, CET has trained over 1,100 dislocated professionals to take on new careers.  Partnering with about 12 companies, the program has nearly a 50 percent placement rate, surpassing the national average and making it one of the most successful programs of its kind.

“Transitional professionals possess rich, deep and diverse work experiences and are faced with the extremely challenging task of reentering an uncertain workplace,” said CET Executive Director Patricia Malone in a press release.

“We are most appreciative to the workforce, business and economic partners who have given their time and expertise to support us in creating a program that offers a beacon of hope, possibility and connectivity to employment opportunities,” she continued.

Earlier this month, a ceremony for 75 of the program’s most recent graduates was held at the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology at Stony Brook. But not all of them were able to be in attendance because some of them had already started jobs in their new fields.

Bruce Cohn, who completed the program in April and declined the invitation to the graduation, was one of them.

“Thank you for the invitation to the graduation ceremony. I will, however, not be able to attend. I have recently started a full time position as a Project Manager at North Shore LIJ,” he wrote.

“I know that this opportunity is a direct result of your program and the preparation I received for the [Project Management Professional] exam,” Cohn added.

Deborah McComb, another graduate of the program, and now a full-time senior consultant for Kurtzman Carson Consultants, also was unable to be in attendance.

“Even with my extensive work in project management, the CET program through Stony Brook University provided me with so much additional insight into the planning, implementation and execution of projects. Even with many years of experience, the knowledge of properly executing a project, which I learned through the PMP course, was invaluable,” McComb said.

Graduates also attended an executive round table with CET’s industry partners and were afforded the opportunity to network with representatives from top companies, including Telephonics, Estee Lauder, Data Device Corporation, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Luitpold Pharmaceuticals, Dayton T. Brown, Sanna Matson McLeod, Parker Aerospace, Curtis Wright and IJ White Systems, among others.

Guests at the event included Deputy County Executive for Operations for Suffolk County and Commissioner of the County's Department of Labor, Licensing and Consumer Affairs Sammy Chu and Alan Z. Fromm, the chief learning officer at Amneal Pharmaceuticals headquartered in Hauppauge.

Stony Brook CET is located in the Advanced Energy Center at Stony Brook Research and Development Park. For more information, call (631) 216-7518 
e-mail sbucet@stonybrook.edu or visit the CET website.

Include your comments below or on our Long Island Discussion Forum.

[Sources: Official Stony Brook University Press Release, The Statesman]

Pictured in Feature Photo: Stony Brook University's CET Executive Director, Patricia Malone, moderates the executive roundtable discussion.

 

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