PTC grows in enrollment, programs, courses, and facilities

At the tenth day of the Spring, 2013 semester, after the flurry of activity brought by “Add/Drop Week” and accommodating late applicants, Pine Technical College marks another round of remarkable growth. Compared to last Spring’s start, enrollment has increased by 8.2 percent, and late registration for many of the college’s remote students has not yet taken place. PTC administrators predict this will further increase the college’s numbers by about 40 students.

“The data tell an important story,” says PTC President Robert Musgrove, Ph.D. “We know two-year colleges typically see more students enrolling during economic downturns, but PTC has seen remarkable growth over the last several years, from year-to-year, and from semester-to-semester. We are experiencing a strong, steady, and sustained upward trend in applicants and students,” Musgrove explains.

PTC administrators are not the only ones taking notice; Community College Week recently named PTC as one of the nation’s fastest-growing, two-year, small public colleges, ranked at number 39 by percent change in headcount. The growth is attributed to a number of things, including the college’s new medical assistant program, its new business technology program, and more courses offered in alternative formats and schedules, including more general education courses and courses transferable to upper-division colleges and universities.

In preparation for the Fall ’12/Spring ’13 academic year’s anticipated jump in enrollment, the college had built new classroom space, as well as repurposed and enhanced existing facilities over much of the last summer term. With a new medical assisting classroom and lab, an added classroom building located to the main building’s east, new office space for the college’s Child Care Aware staff, as well as two new storage buildings on the south side of the campus, the campus now boasts seven buildings and a total of 102,654 square feet.

“The additions and improvements go hand-in-hand with our overall goal of enhancing the educational experience of our students,” says Musgrove. “It’s part of our mission in providing superior and relevant education, and to that end, it’s important to provide the right kind of learning environment supported with updated technologies to facilitate student learning,” Musgrove adds.

PTC offers updated Human Services Eligibility Worker program

Pine Technical College’s Human Services Eligibility Worker diploma and associate degree programs have been updated with a new curriculum that reflects the training and education required for serving in the current public assistance service sector. The programs, previously offered as the Public Welfare Financial Worker diploma and associate degree, prepare students and graduates for positions working in state or county agencies.

“With the updated curriculum and subsequent renaming of the program, we are more prepared than ever to train and develop our students for this valuable human service work,” says Rita Watson, Human Services Eligibility Worker Instructor. “Our previous, long-running Public Welfare Financial Worker program met industry standards and was excellent, but with any training or program, we must continually self-assess and review to ensure we’re staying current, relevant, and up-to-date with ever-evolving technology, in addition to remaining on top of what employers expect,” Watson explains.

Students of the program look forward to a favorable job outlook, as county human service agencies in all of Minnesota’s 87 counties employ eligibility workers; more than two thousand men and women are currently employed as eligibility workers across the state. Historically, between 150 and 200 eligibility workers are hired statewide each year, and while some newly hired eligibility workers are promoted from clerical jobs within a human service agency, most new hires come from outside the agency, and many prefer to hire trained graduates. Additionally, students may take courses via their computers, joining class lectures “live,” and asking questions as they arise as if physically present. This delivery method allows students living in more distant locations access to the program.

“The HSEW program is for individuals who enjoy working with people and computers, plus have an interest in helping people in times of financial need,” Watson says. “Students will learn to use computer systems used by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, plus develop an understanding of the complex rules and policies governing public assistance. And, they will discover and explore issues surrounding diversity as well as advance in their communication skills,” Watson adds.

Once on the job, human services eligibility workers’ duties may include evaluating and recording financial and household data obtained from individuals; initiating procedures to grant, modify, deny, or terminate benefits for various aid programs; and, communicating the decision and policy that supports it to clients.

PHOTO at top: Rita Watson, Human Services Eligibility Worker Instructor

PTC and Health Professions Consortium members nominated for national initiative

Pine Technical College and its nine partners within the Health Professions Consortium, a partnership that came about in late 2011 when the collective won a $19.6 million federal workforce training grant targeting the health professions, have been invited to participate in a national initiative organizers say will “bring the very best talent and latest research together to support and scale real and lasting change in community college education.”

The Health Professions Consortium has been selected to join only seven other recipients of a national grant – the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training (TAACCT) grant – to participate in a groundbreaking partnership sponsored by several funding organizations including the Bill and Melinda Gates, Lumina, and Joyce Foundations as well as Achieving the Dream, The Collaboratory, LLC, and the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the Univ. of Illinois. The purpose of the event, called the Community College Transformative Change Initiative (CCTCI), is to engage TAACCCT consortia leaders in conceptualizing, implementing, and scaling a model of transformative change so community and technical colleges continue to anticipate, adapt, and innovate to meet workforce needs. Organizers say the CCTCI, taking place Feb. 2, 3, and 4 in Anaheim, Calif., will be an “…experientially rich learning laboratory…” with a collaborative network of coaches, peers, affinity groups, and subject matter experts that will enable participants to develop comprehensive, innovative strategic plans for the state’s community college and workforce development systems.

Additionally, each of the selected eight grantees has been asked to identify “transformative leaders” to lead the dialogue on transforming higher education among all participants at the CCTCI. PTC’s Dean of Workforce and Economic Development, Stefanie Schroeder, has been selected to represent PTC and the Health Professions Consortium at the CCTCI as a transformative leader.

“I am very excited for this worthwhile project, and it is an honor for our consortium to have been selected to participate in the CCTCI,” Schroeder says. “To share tools, resources, strategy, and methods with a national network of such innovative community and technical college leaders, strategic partners, and experts from workforce, education and research sectors is a tremendous opportunity. We will all learn a great deal from one another to carry forward in our work toward making a significant, positive impact on the education and workforce systems within this country,” Schroeder adds.