These are challenging times. There is no doubt about that. Old routines are shattered, businesses are closed, workloads more challenging, socializing is distanced and perhaps most of all, we are living in a time of uncertainty.
Through it all, we’ve come together in extraordinary ways to address this pandemic by fostering a community of care. While our lifestyles may be forever changed, we have been reminded throughout this crisis just how strong, creative and compassionate we are as a society. Our world will never be the same. We must work together as one to fearlessly embrace our “new normal” way of life.
At St. Petersburg College, we are reimagining the new normal as we remain open for learning and ready to support the restarting of the economy.
Our workforce will stabilize, and our communities will recover when people retool and, in many cases, retrain for sustainable employment in a new era. This will require industry, education, government and community-based organizations to think and operate differently. We can no longer work in silos. We are all interconnected and dependent on each other for our communities to thrive. Together, we must “learn forward.”
During this crisis, we have learned that at St. Petersburg College, our students, faculty and staff are resilient and determined. They are adapting to new technologies and learning formats that not only provide a quality learning experience, but also lead to the integral skills for them to succeed in this new space of learning and working.
Business and industry will need to collaborate early and frequently with higher education to share new challenges, trends and needed skills, and forecast changes in job projections. This will ensure that training programs are quickly developed or redesigned in order to meet the new needs of our workforce partners.
At the same time, we must address our students’ needs, by designing online classes that simulate the “live” face-to-face experience and direct contact with instructors, offering new schedule and course delivery options for better flexibility, and helping boost confidence in the online learning space through a robust team of supporters and creative tools – all the while, remaining the most affordable option for an advanced education. These changes are particularly important for the growing number of dislocated workers who may be seeking new opportunities to re-train and transition to stable employment in order to care for themselves and their families.
