Mount Marty College Watertown Launches New Program
August 6, 2018
Mount Marty College has launched a new program to develop working people’s leadership and interpersonal skills.
Called Business and Industry Talent Development Program, the new program looks to appeal to business organizations in the Watertown community and surrounding area to allow Mount Marty staff specialized in interpersonal skills training to visit and provide training opportunities to company employees.
According to MMC Director Dr. Cris Gordon, the training will focus on improving the soft skills needed to create a positive and productive working environment. Some of the many possible areas of focus include teamwork and conflict resolution, diversity, customer service and leadership development.
According to Gordon, the new program was born out of a survey taken last spring where respondents, which included supervisors and staff, expressed a desire to see training on interpersonal skills.
“The better people can work with each other and understand each other, the better they will work together,” Gordon said Wednesday. “It extends to the full organization.”
Gordon said she has undertaken similar endeavors in her other career stops prior to her arrival at Mount Marty last January.
“This is something that I have done in the past with other organizations. It was extremely successful. The community organizations really liked having this opportunity for their employees,” Gordon said.
Gordon said the non-profit nature of MMC makes the institution’s program more attractive to prospective organizations, particularly as it relates to affordability toward contracting with MMC rather than a for-profit training firm.
“Because it is offered through a non-profit organization, it is a much more cost-effective way to contract professionals to do the training,” Gordon said.
Depending on what aspects a business is looking to improve, Gordon said the seminars, which could potentially last from one hour to over the course of several days depending on what the organization needs, will be highly customizable.
“If there is something we think that employees need to be trained on, we can actually customize the training for them,” Gordon said. “We have several professionals that work with us that would be doing these trainings. Each one has an expertise in a different area.”
With the initiative launching only a couple of weeks ago, Gordon said MMC has fielded several organizational inquiries. Organizations can inquire with Gordon by either calling her at 605-886-6777 or emailing at cristina.gordon@mtmc.edu.
“This is available for everybody in the community,” Gordon said. “We’re quite excited about it. From what we’ve been hearing in the community, everybody is really needing and wanting these types of training. Having this opportunity to serve the community is very special.”