Cincinnati State Technical & Community College will add to Butler County’s reputation as an educational hub in the region, and not be competitor in the growing industry, local experts say.

The college announced last week it had signed a contract with Higher Education Partners, meaning a downtown Middletown campus will open in the fall in the former CG&E building. More than 200 students are estimated to enroll the first year.

Cincinnati State will be the county’s first community college, and Perry Richardson, a spokesman for Miami University’s regional campuses, said the two schools have been partners since they entered into an articulation agreement in 2008.

“It is an agreement that is intended to improve service to area students. Basically it’s an agreement to collaborate,” said Richardson. “I think the citizens of Butler County can be proud that there are so many (educational) options, and they’re convenient, they’re affordable and they’re high quality.”

One of the collaborations between the schools helped open in 2011 the Greentree Health Sciences Academy in neighboring Warren County. Other partners in the academy include the city of Middletown, Atrium Medical Center and the Warren County Career Center.

“This is about collaboration not competition,” Richardson said of Cincinnati State coming to Middletown.

“What this can do is create a system of student transfers between our systems that can be a seamless and effective as possible.”

Cincinnati State Academic Vice President Monica Posey said being in the same county as Miami University will enhance that partnership.

“This will provide more of a chance for our faculty to connect and hopefully develop some programming together,” she said.

Posey said many students already transfer to Miami University from Cincinnati State.

“They’re going to start near home and they’re going to finish near home,” she said. The years of anticipation, and for some impatience, about when Cincinnati State would officially sign the deal to open its downtown campus melted Thursday when school officials announced they had signed a 20-year contract — which has four five-year extension options — with Massachusetts-based Higher Education Partners.

In the future, Butler County won’t be just an educational hub in the region, but THE educational hub, said state Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Hanover Twp., who represents about half of Middletown.

“Higher education is kind of a priority in this county,” Derickson said. “Even though (Cincinnati State) is starting out on the small scale, there’s not any reason for any of us to believe it’s going to stay on a small scale. They’re going to grow.”

Posey said Cincinnati State wants to contribute to that future.

“We’re moving in that direction and Cincinnati State is happy to be a part of that,” she said.

Cincinnati State has approximately 10,500 students enrolled per semester at its main campus on Central Parkway in Cincinnat. At least 3,560 students could eventually be at the Middletown campus in the years go come, according to study results conducted by Boston-based Macguire Associates and released last June. Posey said having a few thousand students in Middletown in five years is the school’s target.

Programming is still being developed for the Middletown branch campus, but Posey said “there will be different opportunities.”

“We’re going to have a range of different programs, and we’ll have two areas of focus,” she said.

Those students who intend to transfer to a four-year program, like at Miami, will be offered general education courses, and associate degree programs in technology. Courses will feature online and classroom classes, and hybrid options.

Posey said the school is also looking toward workforce development “and we’re planning some training opportunities that employes can take advantage of as well as individuals.” One of those opportunities is offering stackable certifications. Ohio Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Twp., said the signing “represents many more options for citizens of Butler County, which is a great thing,”

“It’s a different market than Miami University and they’re going to complement each other very well,” Coley said.

The Cincinnati State deal is also an economic development opportunity for the city.

Derickson said while teaching and staff jobs be created — though an exact number has not yet been determined — every student will be training for some type of job.

“That’s what education is all about,” Derickson said. “It’s not only about expanding your knowledge, but it’s about getting a job.”

Bill Triick, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton, said the community college will “fill a tremendous void.”

“The educational institution is applying more qualifying graduates to the jobs available because they focused on the jobs available,” said Triick.

Triick said the chamber has been working with the college to help students be co-op students.

“We told them we couldn’t guarantee jobs, but we told them we would do everything we could to facilitate their students meeting with local employers to see of there’s jobs that can’t be filled while they’re going to school,” Triick said.

Higher Education Partners CEO Michael Perik calls community colleges “the workhorses” of education in the country. He said the student base of any community college is diverse, from students not ready for a four-year school to older students looking for a new career.

“That’s why we love the community college market,” Perik said, “because it serves such a range and it’s so relevant of what’s going on in our country now.”

Higher Education Partners first started when Bristol Community College opened its e-Health Careers Institute in southern Massachusetts in 2010. The college started with a few hundred to now more than 2,000 students, Perik said. The Cincinnati State deal will be a template for how many projects will be done in the future, he said.

“What I’m really excited about is this is not only going to be a terrific educational project, but a terrific economic development project for the city,” said Perik, who added there are other deals in discussion around the state and country. “In this day and age and in this economic environment, it’s difficult to get projects like this done unless you have this tripartite cooperation.”