John Mitchell, manager of mechanical support services and an adjunct faculty member at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, was concerned about the state of manufacturing in northeast Indiana and the number of manufacturing jobs being lost by area industries to overseas suppliers.

That inspired him to propose IPFW provide classes for area workers who wanted to upgrade their skills through training in computer numeric controlled machining at the university's cutting-edge Haas Technical Education Center. Offered through IPFW's Continuing Studies program, in partnership with Haas Automation, the first class of eight people was set to finish the program March 27 and another 11 are well on their way.

Students range from their mid-20s to their mid-50s and include a shop owner, a supervisor, a mechanical engineer and a maintenance worker. The certificate they earn upon completion of the no-theory, strictly nuts-and-bolts program could open new doors for them with future employers.

WorkOne, which provides job training and placement services in northeast Indiana, recently expressed interest in the CNC machining program, "and that could bring us a lot more students," Mitchell said.

Because it plans its offerings one semester at a time, IPFW's Division of Continuing Studies is nimble enough that it can quickly incorporate new courses suggested by faculty members or when it sees a need among employers or in the community.

Depending on the course offered, work may be done in class on the Fort Wayne or Warsaw campuses, online on the student's own time or through combination of the two.

"We use a variety of formats. We try to make it as flexible as we can," said Deb Conklin, executive director of the division.

Courses range from the practical and professional - human resources management, supervision and leadership, production and inventory management, health care and Web design, to name just a few - to areas of personal enrichment such as fitness, music, photography and relationships.

"We're seeing a growing number of people interested in just the personal, quality of life issues," said Michael Kelly, the division's director of personal and professional development.

In calendar 2009, Continuing Studies - which includes the general studies associate and bachelor's degree programs as well as noncredit programs - logged 40,342 class enrollments, a 15-percent increase from the year before. Employees from 513 northeast Indiana companies took professional development courses, an increase of 18.7 percent from 2008.

Because of the job losses the region experienced during the recession, "last year saw a significant increase in clients coming in for classes with vouchers from WorkOne," Conklin said. "A lot of those are displaced workers."

The professional development courses are divided into two segments: corporate and tailored training offered privately to specific businesses, and public programs available to anyone in the community.

"Sometimes we'll see something on the public side and say, let's try this on the private side," Kelly said. Sometimes it offers programs on the private side - such as project management, which has been much in demand in such diverse industries as defense and health care - and find there also is a demand for those courses open to the public.

Faculty members for the programs often come, not from traditional academia, but from the industries themselves.

"Most of them are professionals. They have a lot of experience in their fields," Kelly said.

The university also partners with professional organizations, such as the northeast Indiana chapter of the Project Management Institute, to make sure the training covers the material necessary for mastery of the subject and/or to complete a required certification exam.

Some courses also satisfy continuing education requirements for professionals in real estate and other fields.

Through its relationship with the Small Business Development Center, which provides one-on-one assistance to prospective business owners, IPFW has developed marketing, financial planning and other courses to help SBDC clients and others with similar, entrepreneurial interests. It also provides a number of continuing education programs specifically for teachers, as well as continuing ed programs in health care fields such as nursing and dental hygienics.

And IPFW isn't the only educational institution to experience a substantial rise in the demand for its courses. Ivy Tech Community College-Northeast saw its enrollment grow from 8,149 in the fall of 2008 to 10,862 in fall 2009, an increase of more than 33 percent.

Contributing to that growth were both the slump in the economy that had workers returning to school for new training and the institution's transition from a technical school to a traditional community college, said Ed Reed, director of marketing and communications.

"We're kind of divided in half. On the credit side, many of our students are coming back after having been in the work force. But we're also getting students now straight from high school."

Several options now offered allow students to get a "2+2" degree - a two-year associate degree from Ivy Tech with credits that transfer to another institution, such as IPFW, where the student can do two more years and complete a bachelor's degree.

Ivy Tech also works with employers and WorkOne to develop specific career training programs for those already in the work force. The emphasis is strictly on the practical and the professional training students need to get and hold on to jobs.

"What we don't do is just personal enrichment. It's just something we've elected not to do," Reed said.

Course catalogs for both institutions are available online. Visit www.ifpw.edu/dcs or www.ivytech.edu/fortwayne for more information.