EWD Innovation Centers

NextFlex’s First Innovation Center: Lorain County Community College

NextFlex announced its first Education & Workforce Development Innovation Center to recognize Lorain County Community College (LCCC) located in Elyria, Ohio. This special recognition is for NextFlex members who demonstrate leadership while making an extraordinary contribution to NextFlex’s education and workforce development program. LCCC has been a NextFlex member since 2016 and an adopter of FlexFactor^®, NextFlex’s flagship K-12 STEM & entrepreneurship project-based learning program since 2018.

LCCC annually serves over 10,000 students and another 3,000 students are served through partnerships with 14 colleges and universities to deliver more than 100 bachelor’s and master’s degrees in STEM majors that are critical to the advanced manufacturing sector, including a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Microelectronic Manufacturing and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Smart Industrial Automation Systems Engineering Technology. In addition, LCCC provides a renowned “Learn and Earn” program that enables students to work and complete their education concurrently, making them highly sought after prospective employees. LCCC’s goals align with NextFlex’s strategy to educate and train the emerging and incumbent workforce and to create a deep and diverse STEM talent pipeline needed for the advanced manufacturing sector.

“Lorain County Community College has been the ultimate partner, in every sense of the word since the very beginning. Through their leadership and vision, NextFlex was able to leverage the Ohio TechNet (OTN) network to expand FlexFactor to an additional 12 sites in Ohio reaching over 6,800 students. Through our continued collaboration and this EWD Innovation Center designation, we know that we will fill the defense industrial base and most importantly, the semiconductor industry of the future with skilled, talented, and capable STEM employees. From Silicon Valley to the Silicon Heartland, the impact is limitless with a visionary like LCCC in the room!” said Courtney Power, NextFlex Deputy Director, Education and Workforce Development.

“LCCC is proud to accept the distinguished designation as NextFlex’s first Education & Workforce Development Innovation Center,” said LCCC President Marica Ballinger, Ph.D. “Building a strong, diverse, skilled and plentiful workforce is never the task of one institution. It takes collaborative local efforts that are replicable at the state level and nationally supported to truly prepare our region for its future as the Silicon Heartland. That’s what NextFlex and its FlexFactor program are all about and why LCCC has been an engaged and active partner since day one.”

About Lorain County Community College

Established in 1963, Lorain County Community College (LCCC) is the first community college in Ohio with a permanent campus. For more than six decades, LCCC has served the diverse needs of the greater Lorain County region by providing affordable access to higher education.

Since the College’s inception, LCCC has served 50% of Lorain County families and awarded more than 45,000 degrees. LCCC was recently ranked in the top 10% of most affordable colleges in the nation and more than 90% of LCCC graduates live and work in Northeast Ohio. Forty-seven percent of Lorain County’s high school graduates earn college credits through LCCC’s high school dual enrollment programs. LCCC also partners with more than 700 employers and offers 170 industry-recognized credentials to better prepare the workforce of the future.