Dr. Betty H. Adams, Executive Director of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (SVHEC), is pleased to announce that the agency’s Workforce Services division has entered into an affiliation agreement with James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, VA. Carol Fleming, JMU Senior Director for Outreach & Engagement, Doug Gurth, JMU Workforce Development Coordinator, and Dr. Nettie Simon-Owens, Director of Workforce Services at SVHEC, joined Dr. Adams in making the announcement on December 12th.

According to the agreement between the two institutions, JMU will offer several noncredit, workforce focused online programs in affiliation with the SVHEC.  Current offerings include healthcare, paralegal, computer technician, six-sigma green belt, six-sigma black belt, human resource management, financial planning and Certified Manager™. There are currently five healthcare certifications available including Medical Coding and Billing, Medical Transcription Editor, Pharmacy Technician, Medical Administrative Assistant, and Medical Terminology. All programs may be completed without traveling to the JMU campus.

“It was important to both sides that we enter into a partnership that would be mutually beneficial to both the Center and the University, and also to the employers and workers of Southern Virginia,” Fleming stated. “In discussing our new online noncredit training programs, it was decided that this was the program we could build a partnership around. We couldn’t be happier with our decision, and we look forward to partnering with SVHEC and being part of the Southern Virginia area,” she continued.

“The JMU partnership allows the SVHEC to continue offering noncredit, professional interest programming to Southern Virginians in an extremely efficient and cost effective manner. We are excited about all the new noncredit offerings JMU will now bring to the table for our Southern Virginia customers,” Dr. Adams stated.

Dr. Nettie Simon-Owens at the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center said, “We are pleased to have this new affiliation with JMU’s Outreach & Engagement division. JMU's online delivery of many in-demand, content-rich workforce training offerings accompanied by a JMU certificate of completion should be attractive to employers, incumbent workers, and job-seekers in Southern Virginia. We are grateful that JMU decided to extend its outreach to this region through us."
 
Anyone interested in finding out more about JMU’s offerings to citizens in Southern Virginia may click here or call Dr. Nettie Simon-Owens at 434-572-5477 or toll free 1-800-283-0098 ext 5477.