The Parsons-Stulen building on NMC’s Aero Park Campus is dark at 8 pm on Wednesday night, save for a glow coming from a classroom at the end of a hall. There, eight students are bent in silent concentration at sturdy metal tables supporting heavy-duty sewing machines. Two large spools are suspended above each machine, and a thick thread from each spool winds its way through the machine to become stitches that transform vinyl upholstery fabric—faux leather—into pouches. This is the Industrial Sewing class, which is one of many courses that NMC Extended Education and Training Services (EES) offers to students and community members this fall.

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Extended Education has been an integral part of NMC since it opened in 1951 when course catalogs listed both credit and non-credit, community-oriented enrichment classes. In the 1970s, the college grew enough to make Extended Education its own entity.

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Since then, EES has grown and evolved to serve the needs of NMC students, community members, and local industry. “The biggest change that the department is showing right now is the growth of the work and career programming and the tie-in to the credit side. We are intentionally packaging together or threading together non-credit learning opportunities that could lead to credit,” said NMC Extended Education and Training Director Laura Stevens.

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These non-credit learning opportunities include work experience and skills attained on the job, called credit for prior learning. Stevens identified welding as an example of a specialized work skill that can be translated to credits toward a degree program at the college.

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Grant Fuels Extended Ed’s Focus on Workforce Development

In the last year, EES secured a state-funded grant to increase the number of working-age adults with a skill certificate or college degree from 49% to 55% across a 10-county northern Michigan region by 2030. The grant funds are being used to employ key personnel to further develop its work and career programming.

Staff and a grant-funded Student Navigator work one-on-one with students interested in changing or starting new careers by helping to create learning paths through non-credit or credit classes that lead to certificates or degrees.

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Other grant-funded personnel include an Industry Navigator who links local businesses with training resources and funding for their employees, a Community Coordinator who connects industry, educators, and the community to build prioritized career pathways, and a Marketing Coordinator. “We’re calling it broadening the front door,” said Stevens when explaining this multi-pronged approach.

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The new Industrial Sewing class is a result of the efforts through this grant.  Stevens described how EES worked with a local business to obtain experienced sewers to teach the class. EES also worked with industry partners to have the expensive industrial sewing machines donated for the class. “It just takes a village to put some of these programs together,” said Stevens.

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Instructors Bryan Aleshire and Melissa Ferrante each have 30 years of industrial sewing experience, mostly as upholsterers for commercial and residential furnishings. They currently work at Neuco, a Traverse City company that provides custom commercial furniture and upholstery services.

“This is my dream. I wanted to sew for a living and go back to school and inspire some kids to sew. Sewing is just a medium of expression as an artist. We get asked to do stuff that we don’t know how to do, and we figure it out,” said Aleshire.

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Both instructors are hoping to offer another class in the spring based on how quickly this session filled up, and the opportunities that come with it. MichiganWorks! is offering an upholsterer apprenticeship program to help create skilled sewers and match them with local companies looking for talent such as Tent Craft and Bay Supply. Aleshire and Ferrante pointed out that one of their students is already looking into the apprenticeship so they can potentially offer expanded services for their family business.

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NMC Alum David Donovan periodically takes Extended Education classes since he graduated in the 1990s and pursued a career in computer programming. He has a sewing machine at home and took this class to learn how to hopefully make luggage and sails for his boat. He is not necessarily looking to make it a career, “but you never know,” said Donovan.

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Strategy for Extended Education at NMC

Community colleges throughout Michigan have been grappling with fluctuating student enrollment in recent years, and NMC is no exception. These institutions must respond to changing demographics, labor market conditions, and economic pressures to remain viable, according to Community College Review, an online data analysis platform.

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NMC leverages EES to help enrollment numbers and make education more accessible to adult learners.

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 “One of the things we learned from the [previous] strategic plan is that the process of becoming a college student can be difficult. We are using Extended Education to provide those first training, those first hands-on experiences with our NMC instructors,” said Jason Slade, NMC Vice President for Strategic Initiatives.

He explains that the college’s goal is for students to build on the success of those first experiences by coming back to one of the college’s academic programs for a degree or certificate, then continue to upskill throughout their careers.

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Enrichment Classes Are for Everyone

While Extended Education and Training is focused on career development training, the department continues to expand its community enrichment offerings to serve “people ages 4 to 104,” according to Stevens.

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NMC College for Kids is a summer youth program that offers classes in STEM, performing and visual arts, culinary, writing, global studies, and recreation.  At the same time, adult enrichment programs include art, culinary, fitness and wellness, recreation, culture, writing, music, and professional development.

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“Education takes a lot of different forms, so there’s a real opportunity for EES to offer some really sophisticated enrichment programs,” added Slade. NMC Extended Education offers instructor-led international travel, lecture series, and on-the-ground experiential learning like the Northern Naturalist Program as well.

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NMC enrichment programs are offered in fall, spring, and summer each year. Prospective and returning students can look forward to new classes each term along with perennial favorites.

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Mah Jongg Madness is one of the regularly offered classes because of student demand. Barb Floria and her sister Shirley Bolis are teaching the current class, which had a waiting list, but they said that it will be offered again in November, May, and April. “There is a huge community of players in the area after Pam Shaberly brought the game from New York 40 years ago,” said Floria.

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Mah Jongg is a tile-based game of thinking, skill, and luck that originated in 1800s China. It is typically played with four people. Floria likens the game to bridge, where “you need four sessions of practice before you can go out and play in public.” 

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Visit NMC.edu/EES or the NMC Extended Education and Training department in the Parson-Stulen Building on the Aero Park Campus for more information about Extended Education opportunities.