The Building Bridges Program is a cooperative effort of area employers and educators to foster the development of workplace competencies through curricula and instruction.

Read the Fall 2008 Building Bridges Survey Report (Attachment below)

The program is coordinated through the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce, with project leaders from Broome Community College , Broome-Tioga BOCES, and local business and industry leaders.

Building Bridges Goals

• To provide on-site exposure of educators to the particular competencies required at selected work settings.

• To generate ongoing interaction between employers and educators toward appropriate and promising preparation of students for employability.

• To consider the extent to which “learning for earning” should be part of the curriculum at different levels of formal education.

• To explore ways to foster workplace behaviors and competencies through regular academic subjects at all levels of education.
  

BCC Technology Careers Program

• Inform area educators and employers of Tech Careers program.

• Determine area opportunities for employment and current needs.

• Identify competency-based skills required by area employers of new hires with a 2-yr degree.

• Offer services to Educators to create projects to coordinate coursework and technology.

• Increase employer awareness of BCC students & their skills.

• Increase educators’ awareness of BCC programs as pathways to employment and careers.

Building Bridges Team

• Amy Shaw, Executive Director, GBEOP,Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce
  
• Debra Morello, Dean, Center for Continuing Education, BCC
  
• Geetha Nehemia, Learning Specialist, Technology Careers Program, BCC
  
• Patricia M. Shores, Assistant Librarian, Technology Careers Program, BCC
• Frances Traficante, Agent, State Farm Insurance

Building Bridges Process

Each session runs for five weeks.

Participants include educators, counselors, school administrators or other personnel, and area businesses or industries. There are three facilitators who coordinate the activities and run the meetings.

Each week, the educators make an organized visit to one business. The visit includes an orientation, tour of the facility and structured meeting to share impressions, information and opportunities for students within this industry.

The participants have the opportunity to share, inform, comment and discuss any aspect of the program through this wiki, which serves as the program's "home base" and repository for information related to our Building Bridges experience.

The final session is a wrap-up and review, giving participants an opportunity to share lessons learned and strategies for bringing those lessons back to the schools.

Building Bridges History

"Building Bridges" has been developed from a reseach project by Dr. Tom Broussard of Brandeis University. Successful Building Bridges Programs have been completed in the Bangor Region and Waldo County, Maine. Building Bridges program was introduced to the Greater Binghamton area in 2008 by Catherine Glover, former CEO of the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce.