The University of Charleston has announced a new partnership with the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Company of West Virginia to make portions of its online classes available for Toyota employees at the car maker’s facility in Buffalo, WV. The partnership follows years of discussion about the development of unique programs for employees of Toyota who don’t have time for traditional class meetings.
“Most Toyota employees work 50 or more hours each week making tradition seated academic programs inaccessible,” said Robin McLaughlin, an assistant professor at the UC School of Business and Leadership. “Toyota Team Members focus on problem solving, continuous improvement and teamwork, making them excellent candidates for UC programs in leadership.”
The University of Charleston’s School of Business and Leadership has always appealed to the nontraditional student. By creating degree programs for both working professional and actively deployed member of the military, for example, the school has developed a tradition of offering educational opportunities for students in unique circumstances.
After a company-wide survey showed interest in a continuing education option, UC staff and faculty began three years of discussions with Toyota on ways to make educational opportunities available. Some Toyota employees has previously been enrolled in the MBA program in conjunction with their regular day jobs but such a time commitment wasn’t possible for many others, a problem the new program addresses.
“We believe that our relationship with UC will support individual development and growth, and that will continue to make Toyota a world class leader in automobile manufacturing,” said Barry Pearson, Human Resource Manager at Toyota and Strategic Leadership student at UC. “The programs offered by UC tie directly in with our culture of teamwork and problem solving. The result overall will provide a broader outlook into our continued growth of our people development systems.”
The partnership is part of UC’s commitment to its Learning Your Way program, which collaborates with partner organizations to bring value to those partners by developing knowledge, skill and disposition enhancing programs for employees.
For more information, please contact Dave Traube, Director of Communications, at 304-352-0014 or davidtraube@ucwv.edu.
