**PRESS RELEASE**
For Immediate Release:
Monday, June 6, 2005Contact:
Matt Losak, 301-431-5453NATIONAL LABOR COLLEGE SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH IVY TECH COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF INDIANA TO PROMOTE OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNION MEMBERS TO COMPLETE COLLEGE
Silver Spring, Md.-The National Labor College (NLC) and Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana today announced the signing of a formal agreement designed to promote the opportunity for union members who receive college credit from Ivy Tech to complete their Bachelor’s degree through the NLC. Ivy Tech, which already offers union workers the opportunity to earn credit for apprenticeships through the college’s academic assessment process, will now work closely with the NLC to encourage union members to go forward with their education seamlessly from one college to the next.
“Today’s agreement offers a superb opportunity for many of Indiana’s 125 thousand unionized workers who already earn credit for their training through Ivy Tech, to go on to complete their Bachelors at the NLC,” said Sue Schurman, NLC President.
The NLC has more than two dozen similar agreements with colleges and union education programs nationwide.
Ivy Tech President Gerald I. Lamkin said, “This agreement touches upon two pillars of Ivy Tech’s role as Indiana’s comprehensive community college. It recognizes our vigorous and focused contributions to workforce education, and fulfills the requirements necessary for Indiana’s workers to conveniently continue their education toward a baccalaureate degree.”
In addition to agreeing to work together to promote each college’s respective programs to union members, the NLC has formally agreed to accept and transfer academic credits from union members attending Ivy Tech. The credits can be counted toward the NLC Bachelor’s degree.
Both presidents credited the International Union of Elevator Constructors General President Dana A. Brigham whose 25 thousand union members nationwide have benefited from Ivy Tech’s apprenticeship assessment program and the NLC’s degree program, for their leadership in brokering the agreement.
“The agreement between the National Labor College and Ivy Tech is a model for the kind of cooperation and streamlining union members need to both get college credit for what they have already learned and to pursue the knowledge and skills they need to become more valuable workers and stronger union members,” Brigham said.
Established as a union training center by AFL-CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizing skills, the NLC is now the nation’s only accredited higher education institution devoted exclusively to educating union leaders, members and activists. The NLC offers labor related courses, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Labor Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Technical and Professional Studies. The NLC’s flexible learning program and class schedule affords working students the opportunity to study online with limited or, depending on the course or degree program, no time required at its campus located just outside Washington D. C. The NLC became a degree granting college in 1997, and in 2004, the college earned accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an independent, regional accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Graduate programs are also offered at the campus in partnership with local universities.
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