Polk State College Addresses Internal and External Needs To Match Growth Trends

Polk State College’s president, Dr. Angela Falconetti, saw the population explosion coming when she was hired seven years ago.

The growing institution now addresses internal and external needs to match the growth.

“Now we’re feeling [the growth] post-Covid,” she said.

To prepare, the college has been emphasizing strengthening internal operations efficiencies. For example, it has a new enterprise resource system. The current system will not accommodate large requests related to student enrollment and larger class sizes.

“We’re working with the faculty to ensure that faculty have what they need, evaluating growth and programs, potential growth, adding new programs,” she told the Tampa Bay Business Journal. The college got a big boost in June when the state approved $8.1 million for its $51 million Haines City/Davenport campus building, long imagined for the nearly 60-year-old PSC.

Pictured: Polk State College building rendering

Super growth in Northeast Polk
Falconetti said the Northeast area, particularly where that property is located, is the fastest-growing area within the county. It’s an area where 80,000 residents have a high school diploma or some college but no degree. Nearly 40% of all high school seniors in Polk County reside in that area, and 17,000 new jobs are projected to be there in the next decade, she said.

“When we reference growth, we know very well that this [will be] the closest public higher education facility within a 10-mile radius of that site,” she said.

Data shows education lags in Polk, and that keeps wage growth suppressed.

According to Gary Ralston, managing director and owner of SVN Saunders Ralston Dantzler Real Estate, the percentage of Polk County residents who attain a bachelor’s degree or higher is about 21.5%, while Florida is 32.3% and the country is 34%.

The northeast PSC campus will fill some gaps. It is slated to break ground in October and will predominantly serve health sciences. It will also establish Central Florida’s first public higher education interdisciplinary simulation hospital there.

County projects by AdventHealth and Orlando Health are looking for talent. In 2022, AdventHealth contributed $1.7 million to the Polk State College Foundation to enhance and build PSC’s nursing program and endowed its first dean of nursing.

“That has been transformational for our college,” Falconetti said.

In the last three quarters of 2023, its most recent data, nursing associate science graduates have passed at 100% on the National Council Licensure Examination, the test for licensing nurses in the U.S., Canada, and Australia since 1982.

“It’s a big feat,” she said.

She said the state’s passage rate is about 58% for associate degrees in Florida.

The new Haines City/Davenport campus will also serve students in hospitality and tourism, supply chain logistics, arts programs and education, so it will meet the needs of the local workforce.

Polk State to grow B2B partnerships
Polk State College wants to continue its workforce training partnerships with Mosaic, Nucor Steel and Legoland employees.

“We’re looking to find as many opportunities as possible to partner with business and industry to advance those programs that we already have, and then finding efficiencies internally to produce them,” President Angela Falconetti said.

PSC is putting together a systematic plan for critical workforce needs, such as nursing, health sciences, and education. That includes creating customized training where it makes sense.

“We also have offered a public administration program in Winter Haven that we’re now expanding across the county because they want internal professional development,” she said.

Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2024/07/12/polk-state-college-addresses-needs.html

About CCIM

“CCIM stands for Certified Commercial Investment Member. For more than 50 years, CCIMs have been recognized as leading experts in commercial investment real estate. The CCIM lapel pin denotes that the wearer has completed advanced coursework in financial and market analysis, and demonstrated extensive experience in the commercial real estate industry.”