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July 17, 2007

Enterprise Development

Division trains state employees

Continuing Education is now one facet of a larger skill-providing program.

Story by: J. Blankenship

The Shorthorn staff

Try thinking outside the box when there might not even be a box in sight.

A division earned more than $1 million in corporate contracting and workforce development grants using that approach. Monday, another $344,000 contract rolled in as creative leadership takes the university in directions it has never pursued before. It’s a first of its kind in Texas.

“We’ve created a new umbrella organization,” said Teresea Madden-Thompson, Enterprise Development assistant vice president.

Responsive, cutting edge and creative are ways peers and clients describe the division formerly known as Continuing Education. Renamed Division for Enterprise Development on July 1, it behaves like a broker by matching people with skills and workplaces that need experts and individuals with people who have the needed skills.

“It’s on site when you need it, where you need it,” Enterprise Development director Lisa London said. “We respond to the client’s needs.”

The division is the largest training service in Texas for some of the largest state employers. London said division teams have written more than 20 training courses for use in human resource departments, such as the Texas Department of Transportation. University employees travel all over the state providing these education packages, prompting a division satellite office in Austin.

Workplace safety, engineering design and other continuing education needs for TxDOT are managed directly with its Austin human resource department. The $344,000 contract positions university engineers as mentors for 2008. London said the division will be responsible for training some TxDOT engineers.

“We’re helping to make roads safer and workplaces along those roads safer,” she said.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality outsourced its compliance training to the division. University employees now manage the Houston local air program. Serving as the commission’s representatives, five division personnel monitor state law compliance administration from a Houston satellite office.

“We make sure every gas station in Houston is meeting vapor requirements for air quality,” London said. “Everything we do has to be serving the public at the end of the day.”

London described the division mission as developing campus, client and individual enterprise. That focus cultivates departments across the campus by managing seminars, special programming, registrations and promotions for deans. It provides opportunities other campus departments aren’t set up to manage on their own.

Corporate connections are expanding rapidly. Graduate students can now tap into a network of job opportunities in many disciplines, resulting in solid career pipelines to corporations, London said.

“We’re not just cake decorating anymore,” said Don Ziegler, Finance and Administration director. He was promoted from assistant director with the division name change. He helped spearhead enrichment programs that have doubled every year since 2005, according to executive summary reports. When asked about their out-of-the box program style, Ziegler said, “What box?”

“There might not even be a box in sight,” London said.

Both Ziegler and London said they couldn’t have marched in all these new directions without the constant support, trust and confidence from John Hall, vice president for business affairs and controller. He invested in them as an organization and trusted that their ideas would end up as good programs. Hall wasn’t available for comment.

Continuing Education still exists within the new division, providing enrichment courses for adults and children, community service, and consulting, but it’s no longer the division’s primary focus.