Toolwire Leaders in Innovation Reception Focuses on Workforce Solutions for Community Colleges

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Toolwire (www.toolwire.com), a global leader in experiential learning technologies, is hosting the Leaders in Innovation Reception on Sunday, October 2nd at the STEMtech conference. The gathering will bring together leaders in education, the private sector, and others interested in innovative educational solutions for workforce development.

Community colleges have received considerable attention over the past few years as the ideal environment for developing the next generation of workforce-ready employees. In particular, there has been significant discussion about the need for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education and training. Despite the political rhetoric in support of community colleges, public funding for these programs remains critically tight, a situation that has intensified the need for quality blended learning programs leveraging cost-effective, scalable learning technologies.

This year's Leaders in Innovation event is being sponsored by Toolwire, a full-service learning solutions provider specializing in products and services for experiential learning. Serving global leaders in both the private sector and Higher Education, Toolwire's core competencies include both hosting and supporting technology solutions and developing media-rich educational content customized to meet the unique needs of its partners.

Toolwire's featured guest for the evening will be Norma Morganti, Executive Director of the Midwest Community College Health Information Technology Consortium.  Representing the Cuyahoga Community College District, Morganti is the Lead Awardee of a two-year workforce training grant through the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Toolwire has worked with Morganti and the Consortium to provide instant, unscheduled access to the VA VistA Electronic Health Record database and is developing immersive learning environments to support the Consortium's job-specific training in six work force roles for health information technology.  

"Under Norma Morganti's visionary leadership, the Midwest HIT Consortium now represents over 20 member colleges and continues to add new members," commented Steve Lynch, Toolwire's Director of Learning Solutions.  "The consortium model makes sense for many reasons. Chief among them, small colleges and those serving remote populations can realize significant savings and make great strides towards sustainability by spreading development costs across member organizations.  This model also fosters best practices through collaboration that would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve alone."

"We have been fortunate to identify great partners, not only with other colleges but also with leaders in the private sector such as Toolwire," said Norma Morganti. "When you have the right team, it is amazing what synergies emerge."

"By addressing the critical need of employers actively seeking workforce-ready professionals, the consortia model is fulfilling the core mission of community-based education," said John Valencia, Toolwire's President and CEO. "This reception will give leaders opportunities to make valuable connections and discover exciting new ways to work together to advance STEM education through innovative technologies."

About Toolwire

Toolwire is a learning solutions provider specializing in products and services for experiential learning. Empowering Higher Education and corporate training institutions to deliver "virtual internships" across fields including Health Care, Information Technology, and Engineering, Toolwire's award winning solutions "bring learning to life". Toolwire Learnscapes, StudentDesktops, Scenarios, and LiveLabs provide the quickest, most effective way to develop skills and enhance student success.

About The Midwest Community College Health Information Technology Consortium

The consortium is addressing a pressing need in the health care job market by recruiting and training people for the growing field of health information technology (HIT), also called health informatics. The HIT consortium provides training in six work force roles to support electronic health records implementation and consists of 17 large innovative community colleges in 10 Midwest states. Through leading-edge curriculum and a program consisting of both campus-based training and distance learning, the consortium's goal is to recruit and train a minimum of 2,700 health informatics professionals and students annually. For more information, please visit http://www.mwhit.org.

About STEMtech

The STEMtech conference, October 2-5, 2011, at Indianapolis' new JW Marriott is sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College.  At this conference, educators, industry leaders, and others will gather to discuss increasing student access into and success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and careers. The 2011 STEMtech conference will also help educators explore the strategic use of information technology to better serve their students, campuses, and communities.

Media Contact:
Peyton Williams
Toolwire, Inc.
1-646-352-2525
[email protected]

SOURCE Toolwire