Audio clip
Ray Smith
Several colleges in the Chattanooga area that serve nontraditional adult learners have partnered to form the Chattanooga Higher Education Alliance.
The group, which includes Bethel College, Covenant College, Southern Adventist University and the University of Phoenix, plans to work together to recruit adult students, said Ed Pickel, director of marketing at Covenant College Quest, that school’s adult degree program.
“We are competitors rubbing shoulders with one another, but that is OK,” Mr. Pickel said.
Many cities have organizations similar to the Chattanooga Higher Education Alliance, said Ray Smith, regional director of Bethel College, but there never has been such a partnership in the Chattanooga area.
Colleges with adult learning programs want to recruit at businesses, drawing adults who did not finish their college degrees. Many companies are wary, however, of allowing several schools to come in and recruit, Mr. Smith said.
The Chattanooga Higher Education Alliance works to set up career fairs for area businesses, allowing students to shop many of the area’s adult programs at once, Mr. Pickel said.
“It brings all that we have to offer under one roof,” he said. “Rather than just talking with one school, they have choices.”
Since the Chattanooga Higher Education Alliance formed late last year, the group has held private jobs fairs at EPB and Erlanger hospital, Mr. Pickel said.
Today, college representatives plan to be at the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce Expo at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
Joan Garrett has been a staff writer for the Times Free Press since August 2007. Before becoming a general assignment writer for the paper, she wrote about business, higher education and the court systems. She grew up the oldest of five sisters near Birmingham, Ala., and graduated with a master's and bachelor's degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama. Before landing her first full-time job as a reporter at the Times Free Press, she ...
Or login with:
New Account