'Discover Your Skills' Educates Community Colleges Nationwide

In the upcoming school year, Montgomery College students will take part in an initiative to build their skills for the workplace.
 
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Governor Martin O’Malley, Discovery Communications’ President and CEO David Zaslav, Montgomery College’s President DeRionne P. Pollard, and local officials unveiled “Discover Your Skills” Tuesday at the Montgomery College Health and Sciences building in Silver Spring.
 
The new partnership between Discovery Communications and Montgomery College is the first stop in a nationwide effort to forge a relationship between employers and community colleges.
 
The college campus of about 60,000 students will have access to internships, guest lecturers, resume development from human resources professionals, and other job development tools.
 
“We are proud to partner with Discovery to provide our students with greater access to career opportunity’s that will prepare them for success in today’s competitive global economy,” said Pollard.
 
In the following school year of 2012-2013, the media company will also offer digital resources from their Discovery Education division. On the website, collegiate teachers can access information to supplement lessons in the classroom across the multiple fields such as health and sciences along with culinary arts.
 
This education program deals with the increasing gap of the needs of employers and the skills workers actually have, said Presdient and CEO of Discovery Communications David Zaslav.
 
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan echoed this concern.
 
“Community colleges can’t exist in a vacuum they have to build great, great partnerships with the local business community. As obvious as that sounds, in too many places that hasn’t been the history, ” said Duncan.
 
Discovery's also launching public service announcements across their U.S. networks starting Aug. 29, to raise awareness to the importance of training and job skills including awareness about career opportunities.