PRESQUE ISLE – The city’s two colleges are teaming up on a course that will give community college students a leg up if they choose to transfer to a four-year program.

Officials with the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Northern Maine Community College are working together to offer an Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare class this spring. Credits from the course apply to existing NMCC associate degree programs and transfer to UMPI if students opt to seek a bachelor’s degree.

Kim-Anne Perkins, director of UMPI’s Bachelor of Social Work program, is teaching the NMCC course to more than 20 NMCC and UMPI students on the community college campus.

Perkins said last week that this is the first time in at least 15 years that the two higher education institutions have collaborated on a course like this.

“We wanted to create a real and visible bridge for any student attending NMCC to participate in the continuum of education that the community college and university systems offer,” Perkins said.

She said community college students should know that they have options beyond earning an associate degree. In many parts of the country, she explained, the community college system is the primary feeder to bachelor of social work programs.

“The social work degree as a professional degree requires four years of education,” she said. “By my coming into their educational experience, I want to show them that by coming [to school] for another two years, this is what they get. They don’t have to think that their education stops after two years.”

Alan Punches, NMCC vice president and academic dean, said last week that the course benefits both institutions. He explained that many students feel they need to do all their work in a four-year program if they’re seeking a bachelor’s degree. The joint venture between NMCC and UMPI this semester is helping to change that.

“We can’t put out somebody with good credentialing for social work, but now we’re a legitimate first step for arriving at people’s baccalaureate goals,” he said.

The social work course – which covers social work, social welfare and the human needs they address – is filled with nursing and early childhood education students earning their social science elective as well as those pursuing an associate degree in liberal studies and university social work students.

Perkins has been teaching the class for two weeks now.

“I am absolutely thrilled with the energy and the caliber of the students,” she said. “I just really appreciate the fact that they seem to be very interested in the class and are taking it for all the right reasons.”

Right now, Perkins teaches the class every fall at UMPI, and if the NMCC course goes well, it may alternate between campuses each semester.

“This is a fantastic idea, and we should do more of it,” Punches said. “It sends an important message to the community that both institutions are committed to providing the necessary educational resources to meet the needs of the region.”