Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) is building the Corron Community Development Center on its Middletown Campus. This 30,000-gross-square-foot building will be a multi-purpose facility that supports workforce services, continuing education, small business development, college advancement and community events. The facility will provide additional training opportunities for area residents and the ever-increasing business community in the LFCC service region. In addition, the Old Dominion University (ODU) Teletechnet program is partnering with LFCC to occupy a portion of the building, allowing expanded distance learning opportunities.
The two-story facility will include classrooms, office space and a 500-seat multi-purpose room. Configurable classrooms can be used for workforce training programs, professional development course offerings, meetings or breakout spaces for larger gatherings. When configured to form one large area, this classroom space will support a variety of activities and functions, including conferences, meetings and other special events.
The Corron Community Development Center is scheduled to be completed in 2009. Once constructed, the facility will help fulfill the educational needs of the students in the College’s service region and enhance the skills of the region’s current and future workforce. This, in turn, will help LFCC position itself as the premier provider of educational programs and workforce and customized training in the area.
This facility will benefit the community by:
The College currently leases space in Middletown for the Lord Fairfax Small Business Development Center and the Office of College Advancement. These units — as well as the LFCC Office of Workforce Solutions and Continuing Education, the LFCC Educational Foundation and the ODU Teletechnet program — will occupy office space in the Corron Community Development Center.
LFCC’s Office of Workforce Solutions and Continuing Education assists businesses and entrepreneurs and addresses their training and educational needs. Annually, the office serves more than 10,900 individuals in professional development and business and industry courses.
The Office of Workforce Solutions and Continuing Education faces a critical shortage of both classroom and office space. As the number of students and businesses served by LFCC continues to grow, and with it the requisite staffing, this problem will increase. By eliminating scheduling conflicts with the College’s credit offerings, the construction of the Corron Community Development Center will allow for more continuing education and training opportunities.
The Lord Fairfax SBDC helps to create and retain jobs in the private sector by providing business counseling and related services at no charge to new and established small businesses.
The LFCC Office of College Advancement manages the following functions for the College and LFCC Educational Foundation:
ODU offers an interactive distance education program, called Teletechnet, that enables students to earn bachelor's and master's degrees from a fully accredited public university by attending classes on the Fauquier and Middletown Campuses of LFCC. Methods of delivery include live satellite transmission to the LFCC campus from ODU’s main campus in Norfolk, online courses and video streamed courses. Among the programs of study are business, education, engineering, health science and nursing and human services. With more than 50 locations at community colleges and military bases in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Virginia, Washington and the Bahamas, ODU’s satellite delivery network is the largest distance learning network of its kind in the nation.
On June 13, 2008, an invitation for bids was issued for the construction of the Corron Community Development Center. The solicitation closed on July 15, 2008, at 10 a.m.
Construction will begin soon after the contract is awarded.