Center for Business and Industry

Enhance your skills for yourself & your work community.

Experience learning that can help you at work with the Center for Business and Industry.

The Center for Business and Industry (CBI) at Worcester State University is committed to enhancing the skills of individuals in local communities and employees in the University’s partner organizations. We deliver training on site at companies, online, on Worcester State’s campus, or a combination. We offer both credit and non-credit training and open enrollment programming on campus that is accessible to individuals and businesses.

We can customize solutions to fit your unique business needs. We will meet with you to understand your business goals and challenges. When you partner with us, we will work with you closely throughout the implementation of your training plan.

Learn about our new partnership with Focus EduSolutions in the link below. Micro-credential certification programs kick-off June 12, 2023!

Focus edusolutions

Discover additional opportunities.

See each box to find credentials, certifications, and courses with Cengage, CareerStep, Ed2Go, JER, Online Cannabis Education, and MindEdge that match your interests and will help you achieve your goals in a career.

Earn a Credential for a New Career

Allied Healthcare Education

Center for Legal Studies & Paralegal Certification

Professional Development Courses

Technical Communication Online Career Training Courses

Cannabis Industry Workforce Training

Online Certificate Courses, CEUs, & Programs

Arts and Design

Cannabis Business

Cannabis Cultivation and Production Management

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Food Truck Entrepreneurship

Insurance Sales Accelerator

Massachusetts Cannabis Regulatory Compliance Training

Medical Cannabis

Smart Manufacturing

Trucking Operations

Why wait to begin training? Start earning workforce credentials with the Center for Business and Industry now!

Promotions

Boot Camps

Learn at our campus or at work.

Why wait to begin training? Start earning workforce credentials with the Center for Business and Industry now!

725+ training programs

Sign up for a program that fits your learning style. We have traditional classroom lectures and blended online/live instruction for teaching in either credit or non-credit training.

Affordable pricing

All training programs cost as little as $99 - $225! This is a great value for the education and work benefits you will receive.

Learn at our campus or at work.

Contact the Center for Business and Industry to find out how Worcester State can bring the courses to your business or non-profit, and even help you write a grant that pays for the training.

Find out how the Center for Business and Industry can benefit you.

See the various lifetime benefits of joining a program with the Center for Business and Industry below.

Upgraded Skills Workforce-Wide

Promotions

Higher Salary

New Career Options

Your Own Business

Receive training funds from the Center for Business and Industry.

CBI is committed to you

When your company agrees to contract with us for all your training needs resulting from a grant submission, the CBI will provide the following services to your company for free:

Training needs assessment
Training plan design
Trainer choice options
Preferred trainer status
Grant writing assistance
Approved grant management
In-depth grant reporting assistance

Please know CBI staff have worked on many successful grant initiatives with companies of the commonwealth, and our Consultative Easy Step system (outlined above) has resulted in companies pursuing many consecutive grants through us, because we take on the most challenging parts of grant writing and management.

Let the Center for Business and Industry do all the heavy lifting to get the training funds your organization needs to take your company, and employees, to the next level of business success with the training your company needs!

Take the necessary steps to receive training funds.

Annually, 187,000 Massachusetts businesses pay to fund the Workforce Training Fund. In turn, each year the Workforce Training Fund awards approximately $21 million in grant money to help businesses train employees, enhance skills, and learn new skills. The experienced staff of Worcester State's Center for Business and Industry has worked with 50+ Massachusetts companies to access millions in training funds, and we wish to extend these services to you, and your company, free of charge.

Step 1: Complete CBI's online grants service agreement.

Complete the agreement to access the CBI’s free grant writing assistance. Please know this is a zero risk commitment, since only you can “click” submit of the final application, you can cancel a grant application any time before submitting, and your company will not be billed. Additionally, if your grant is one of the rare applications we have championed that is NOT approved, your company owes the CBI nothing. You can access the agreement by clicking "Step 1" above.

Step 2: The CBI will assess your company's training needs.

Before we can write a competitive grant, the professional trainers and educators of the CBI will design a training program that meets your training needs and that of your staff. To make this assessment easy, the CBI offers you a free online training needs assessment that can be completed in an average of only 5 minutes time per employee, and can be easily distributed to your whole company via an email, or even text message. After we collect the initial data from this survey, CBI staff will meet with your leadership team to share the data, and prioritize your training needs for greatest return on your investment of time and company resources, aligning them with your company’s strategic vision.

Step 3: Provide information needed to complete your grant application.

Once we begin working on a grant on your company’s behalf, the CBI will forward your designated company liaison three successive online surveys, each with only a few questions, and each including sample responses and recommendations for crafting rough draft answers. The short answers provided by your liaison will enable us to gather critical information about your company’s training needs, goals, and measurable outcomes, all essential to our grant writers crafting a competitive grant application consistent with our staff’s 96% grant approval rating.

Questions?

Request more info

Want to stay updated with the CBI?

Subscribe to the mailing list

Contact Center for Business and Industry

LRC 202 A & B

cbi@worcester.edu

508-929-8560

508-929-8179