By: Sean Clancy,
Associate V.P. Marketing & Business Engagement
Great Bay Community College
The pandemic we’re experiencing together is re-ordering life as we know it, across all sectors of our society. At Great Bay Community College, we’re preparing for the future by focusing on how we can best serve the changing and evolving needs of the Seacoast community.
Change and upheaval are difficult, but they often lead to opportunity. Great Bay stands ready to serve the region’s educational needs, to prepare people for new careers and better lives. Many people will find themselves out of work or at least dealing with personal disruptions – and we can help. If you’re a college student enrolled in a four-year institution and unsure if you’ll be able to return to campus in the fall – or maybe you’re having second thoughts about doing so — more than ever now is an ideal time to enroll at Great Bay.
Here’s why:
- Our tuition is less than half of a four-year school.
- Credits earned at Great Bay transfer to leading colleges and universities, in New Hampshire and across the country.
- We have exceptional educational programs taught by highly qualified faculty, many with advanced degrees and extensive industry experience. Many of our faculty teach at other colleges and universities expanding their perspective.
- We have small classes, a strong network of academic support and an advising team that is committed and trained to customize academic plans for the needs and desires of individual students.
- We don’t just help people get jobs; we help them build careers. Our academic programs are designed in partnership with industry leaders to fill immediate workforce needs. Depending on the course of study, a certificate can be earned in as little as six months or an associate degree in two years, often while working in a chosen career prior to graduation.
- We are here to provide lifelong learning to individuals who may need to enhance skills, re-train or change career paths. Through partnerships and collaborations, we are able to continuously stay in synch with employer needs and can adapt curriculum as required. This now, more than ever, will be imperative in the post COVID-19 economy.
- We’ve offered remote learning for a long time and we do it well. When the coronavirus closed our campus, we swiftly transitioned our classes, tutoring and all support services to online platforms, and worked closely with students who did not have prior experience with remote learning. This fall, we are planning for all scenarios, including classes offered exclusively online, in a live-face-to-face format, and others with on-site labs.
A new national survey of 2,000 college-bound high school seniors and current college students frames the opportunity that’s before us. Four-year colleges could lose up to 20 percent of expected fall enrollment, according to the survey, which was conducted in March and April. Ten percent of college-bound seniors who had planned to enroll at four-year college in the fall have already changed their plans, because of the pandemic. Twenty-six percent of current college students said they were “unlikely” to return to the campus in the fall. Many graduating seniors are considering taking a “gap year.” The traditional pathway is changing. We understand. People are scared.
Great Bay Community College offers a new pathway. For young students as well as so-called “non-traditional” students, who are a little older and perhaps finding themselves suddenly out of work, there has never been a better time to consider Great Bay. We’re local, we’re nimble and we’re tuned into what the community needs.
We are Great Bay. Check us out.
Sean is the Associate Vice President for Marketing & Business Engagement at Great Bay Community College.
In this capacity he oversees GBCC’s Business & Training Center as well as GBCC Rochester.
Sean is a long time Seacoast resident and is energized by the intersection of education and the economy.
He can be reached at (603) 427-7650 or [email protected]
