Ivy Tech Community College will be expanding its presence in the Gary area with a few strategic moves and new partnerships with both Indiana University Northwest and The Gary Area Career Center. As a part of a potential partnership with the Gary Community School Corporation, Ivy Tech will be moving some of its classes from its 35th street campus to the Gary Career Center as it plans to vacate its current premises in short order. This upcoming merger bodes very well for Gary’s career technical education program as it will bring years of experience and college level instruction to local high school students to better prepare them to join the workforce right out of high school. This new addition to the Gary curriculum helps to address a great deficiency in career readiness for seniors as they embark on the job hunt as new graduates in an over saturated job market. The leadership at Gary Schools saw this problem to be unacceptable and have taken the first of many steps to ensure each one of its students leave its halls as prepared as possible for the real world.
In an interview with Inside Indiana Business, Lake County Chancellor Louie Gonzalez said in a statement:
“Ivy Tech continues to maintain a strong presence in the city of Gary, and will continue to do so. We are not eliminating any course offerings there. In fact, with our recently constructed shared space with Indiana University Northwest, we have expanded and enhanced our science curriculum. We are now able to offer associate degrees in biology and chemistry.
What we are doing is relocating some of our programs to a state-of-the-art facility just blocks away from our present location, without a reduction in services. We also are in discussions to possibly relocate other programs to a location currently administered by the Gary Community School Corporation, also just blocks from our original buildings in the city. Our commitment to Gary has not wavered.
We anticipate these changes to bring growth, not reduction, to our student population and that they will help both Ivy Tech and the Gary community thrive. We believe this is the best way to carry out our twofold mission: ensuring employers have a pool of skilled workers ready to fill high-paying jobs and giving our students a solid foundation to advance to a four-year degree.”
