Special Workforce Services

Special Workforce Services helps students achieve their maximum potential through programs such as New Connections to Work and Georgia Fatherhood.

New Connections to Work
New Connections to Work provides comprehensive training activities that lead to employment, such as life skills/job readiness workshops, assessments, career guidance and support services, and occupational skills training.

For 21 years, the New Connections to Work program has offered services to its target population, which includes single parents, displaced homemakers, single pregnant women, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients. This state and federally funded program is offered in 33 technical colleges and 3 colleges with technical divisions. During FY 01, more than 15,000 participants were assisted in their goal to achieve economic self-sufficiency.

The program continues its collaboration with the Georgia Department of Human Resources (DHR), Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS). During FY 01, more than 7,000 TANF recipients received services through New Connections to Work programs.

Georgia Fatherhood Program
The Georgia Fatherhood Program (GFP) is a partnership between DTAE, Division of Special Workforce Services, and the Department of Human Resources, Child Support Enforcement (CSE). Other partners include the Departments of Labor, Pardon and Paroles, and Corrections.

Currently, DTAE is negotiating with the Department of Public Safety to employ GFP participants as licensed examiners, radio operators, and state troopers.

GFP provides education, training, and job placement for non-custodial parents with court-ordered child support. GFP offers a statewide systematic delivery of services that enables participants to contribute to the economic well-being of their children and the workforce development of the state. The standard is to provide a comprehensive program of services, which includes assessment, workshop competencies, and skills training concurrent with employment. Since its inception, more than 5000 eligible participants have been served through 33 technical colleges and 3 colleges with technical divisions.

Specifically, the Georgia Fatherhood Program targets low-income, non-custodial parents court-ordered to pay child support through CSE. These parents are unemployed, employed with an income less than $20,000 per year, have children receiving TANF benefits, or lack a high school diploma or GED.

Cited by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Child Support Enforcement Association as the only statewide program of its kind, the Georgia Fatherhood Program serves as a national model of collaboration for comprehensive training and service delivery to non-custodial parents.

Fast Track to Jobs
Fast Track to Jobs, a program for non-custodial, non-supporting fathers aged 16-21, is a component of the Georgia Fatherhood Program and was established in July 1998 as an anti-gang deterrent.

The six-week residential program of vocational exploration and summer work experience seeks to help participants develop self-esteem, responsibility, and self-respect. Participants are required to attend school, obtain a high school diploma or GED, and take classes in parenting and money management. Participants also perform community service and cooperate with Child Support Enforcement.

The basic components of this progressive program include education, skill development, counseling, and a variety of therapeutic activities. By emphasizing team efforts and individual growth from interaction with peer residents, the program provides access to positive intervention and treatment efforts that may have been previously inaccessible to the participants.
The young fathers in this unique program have the opportunity to acknowledge paternity and care for their children. This opportunity gives the participants a sense of pride and self-respect. Participants also learn skills that help them become responsible and self-sufficient members of society.

Student Support Services

Student Support Services provides students with assessment, admissions, career planning and development, registration, placement, and federal/state financial assistance.

Financial Assistance Services
As of fiscal year end, 30,689 technical college students received financial assistance through the Federal Pell Grants Program. In FY 01, 81,435 students received $62,393,908 in HOPE grants and 3,394 students received $2,759,098 in HOPE Scholarships.

Since the inception of HOPE in 1993, 268,051 students have received $250,238,167 in HOPE grants and 7,242 students have received $7,131,496 in HOPE Scholarships.

Equity Services and Special Populations Services
Equity Services and Special Populations Services assist students with disabilities, students with academic and/or economic disadvantages, or limited English proficiency; students training for nontraditional careers; displaced homemakers, and single parents.

Student Activities
Student Activities is responsible for providing support and assistance to the five major student organizations throughout the state of Georgia: Delta Epsilon Chi (DEX), National Vocational-Technical Honor Society (NV-THS), Phi Beta Lambda (PBL), Statewide Student Leadership Council (SSLC), and skills USA-Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA). Leadership training for state officers is conducted each year in August at the FFA/FHA Camp in Covington and for state and local officers at the Fall Leadership Conference in November. More than 2,000 students participated in student organizations during FY 01.

Student and Faculty Recognition Programs

Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership
In 2001, the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL) program celebrated its 30th year. This momentous diamond anniversary celebration was more than an awards banquet; it was a weeklong who's who event where Georgia's business, government and industry leaders joined our technical colleges to celebrate technical education's vital impact on Georgia's workforce, prosperity and future. GOAL strives to stimulate the community's interest in and knowledge of technical education by recognizing outstanding student talent as well as strengthening the association between educators and the business community. GOAL emphasizes the importance of technical education in today's world and rewards students who exemplify excellence in their chosen program of study. The recipient of the statewide GOAL award is recognized as the Georgia technical education system's Student of the Year.

Earnest Dixon, Jr., the 2001 statewide GOAL winner, is a student in the Electronics Technology program at Heart of Georgia Technical College. Dixon serves as president of the state VICA program, founded the Dodge County Community Choir, works with Theatre Dublin, served two years as president of the State Student Council and works with Heart of Georgia Technical College's student council. In recognition of his accomplishments, Dixon was presented with the GOAL Medallion and a fully loaded 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier from Bill Heard Chevrolet. As the Student of the Year, Dixon will serve as the Student Ambassador for the Technical College System of Georgia.

DTAE, FOX 5 Atlanta, DeVry Institute and Bill Heard Chevrolet jointly sponsor GOAL.

The Rick Perkins Award for Excellence in Technical Instruction
The Rick Perkins Award for Excellence in Technical Instruction, now in its 11th year, recognizes and honors outstanding instructors who make significant contributions to technical education through instructional excellence, superior leadership qualities, and dedication to the mission of DTAE. The recipient of this distinguished award is recognized as the Georgia Technical education system's Instructor of the Year.

The recipient of the 2001 Rick Perkins Award is Barbara Jo Cook, an instructor of English at Griffin Technical College. Cook has developed innovative instructional methodologies in English that relate to life and work, coordinated transferability of credits from Griffin Technical College to various colleges and universities, and has served on committees to write English standards for Developmental Studies. In recognition of her accomplishments, Cook received a beautiful crystal award and a gift of $1,000.

Lighthouse Institute
The Lighthouse Institute provides an opportunity for outstanding technical college classroom instructors to be recognized and rewarded for their dedication, hard work, and excellence. The Lighthouse Institute is jointly sponsored by the Technical Education Committee of the Presidents' Council and the Northwest Georgia Consortium of Presidents and has been an ongoing statewide event since 1996.

Technical College presidents select their participants based on criteria established at each individual technical college. Participants have the opportunity to share teaching skills to promote learning and to be exposed to national innovators in the teaching and education fields. Featured presenters included: Dr. George Baker, III, North Carolina State University; Mr. Roddy Gray, noted humorist from Abbeville, S.C.; Dr. Timothy Mescon, HA & W Mescon Group, Atlanta; Ms. Pam Thomas, Georgia Power Company, Atlanta; Michael Johnson, Senior Vice President of Workforce/Education Development, Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Jim McKenney, Director of Workforce Development, American Association of Community Colleges, Washington, D.C.; Dr. Ken Breeden, DTAE Commissioner; and Ms. Wendy Martin, Albany Technical College. Several panel presentations highlight the event and include key representatives from business and industry.

Education Initiatives

The Office of Technical Education has been engaged in establishing the appropriate infrastructure to support and accurately account for DTAE's high school/technical college collaborative programs. Focus has been given to identifying processes and procedures that facilitate seamless transitions and establishing an accountability system to accurately capture this movement. The Office of Technical Education has particular emphasis on expanding, strengthening, and connecting successful existing high school/technical college collaborations.

This office has been significantly involved in developing new standards for alternative education, participating in the development of the K-12 Report Card, establishing the Youth Services and School-to-Work (StW) Workforce Investment Board committees, creating the Instructional Services Agreement for technical colleges to provide instruction to students in Youth Development Centers (YDCs) within the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), and assisting Family Connections in youth development strategies.

School to Work
Of the 43 StW local planning partnership grants, receiving more than $2,600,000 in StW grant dollars, 35 partnerships have been funded for implementation and another five have submitted implementation applications. Over the next three years, these partnerships will receive more than $20,080,000 in StW grant dollars. Through this effort, the Office of Technical Education continues to identify community-based, high school/technical college collaborative programs and establish relationships with Local Workforce Investment Board Youth Councils and other youth development organizations that promote the seamless transition of secondary students to postsecondary technical education.

In FY 01/02 Georgia's StW grant is funding 15 five-year models of Jobs for Georgia Graduates sites, receiving $825,000 in FY 01 and $907,500 in FY 02. This effort increases total Department of Labor Jobs for Georgia Graduates sites to 40 and introduced the new five-year JGG model to Georgia. In FY 01, these sites were incorporated into existing StW partnerships to enhance the positive impact on secondary "at risk" students successfully completing high school and transitioning into postsecondary education.

StW continues its commitment to direct 85 percent of the overall $36.2 million grant dollars to local partnerships for strengthening, expanding, and connecting the communities' existing school-based, work-based, and connecting activities.

Tech Prep
The DOE/DTAE Tech Prep Collaborative, beginning in the 2000/ 2001 school year, placed in motion 37 Tech Prep consortia. Each alliance involves a technical college or a college with a technical division with the secondary school systems in the college service area. In FY 01, local consortia received more than $3,000,000 to implement the Tech Prep program, which is designed to improve seamless student transition from high school to postsecondary technical education. The DOE/DTAE Statewide Articulation Agreement, accepted by all of Georgia's technical colleges, allows for secondary students to receive postsecondary credit at any statewide technical college after successful completion of the course and validation of the competencies learned in that articulated course.

FY 00 data indicate there were 2,697 students enrolled in Tech Prep (unduplicated count for Summer 99, Fall 99, Winter 00, and Spring 2000.) FY 01 data indicate that approximately 2826 students enrolled in Tech Prep (unduplicated count for Summer 00, Fall 00, Winter 01, and Spring 01).

Dual Enrollment and Postsecondary Options
Dual enrollment programs enable students to enroll in postsecondary classes and earn Carnegie units of credit that count toward high school graduation requirements and postsecondary credit hours through collaborative initiatives between high schools and postsecondary schools.

This broad classification of secondary student crosses over several program lines (i.e., Postsecondary Options, Tech Prep, Youth Apprenticeship, and High School HOPE). Over the past several months, the Office of Technical Education has been working with DTAE data staff and technical college student services staff to ensure that data collection processes and procedures reflect accurate representation of these populations. As of April 2000, unduplicated data indicated 3,480 secondary students participated. In FY01, unduplicated data indicate 4,443 students are participating in these seamless education opportunities, generating almost 71,300 credit hours.

In FY01, Georgia DOE's Division of Technology and Career Education and DTAE's Office of Technical Education published Dual Enrollment HOPE Program - Agreement to Participate. The program offers additional educational opportunities for secondary students by enabling them to receive HOPE grant monies while earning dual course credit from both DOE secondary schools and DTAE technical colleges while still enrolled in high school.

Central Education Center
The Central Education Center (CEC), a collaborative between the community, Coweta County school system, and West Central Technical College, is an innovative educational delivery system that provides postsecondary technical education in a secondary environment. CEC enables secondary students to simultaneously complete secondary and postsecondary technical education credentials. In Fall 2000, CEC opened phase one of the facility with a secondary student enrollment of 650. In addition, in FY 01, the evening postsecondary technical college served 200 students, the adult education program served 150 students, and the evening high school served 50 students. There were 107 secondary students that completed postsecondary technical certificates of credit programs through dual enrollment. One hundred and fifty local employers participated in work-based learning experiences for CEC students. The DTAE Work Ethics model was adapted and is a part of every student's program while at CEC.

Early Childhood Care and Education
DTAE is the leading agency in collaboration with the Georgia Childcare Council, Quality Assist Inc., Georgia Department of Human Resources, Georgia Early Learning Initiative, Federal Head Start, and the Office of School Readiness with the goal of providing statewide coordination of systems for professional advancement in childcare and education.

High School Student Preparation and Technical College Awareness
In FY 01, the Office of Technical Education continued to address secondary students' awareness of their level of preparation to enter postsecondary technical education. The Office of Technical Education participated in several activities designed to address this issue.

At the request of the Commissioner and State Board of Technical and Adult Education Chairperson, an inquiry was generated to identify the technical college student recruitment and/or marketing activity that has resulted in technical college enrollment for the following focus areas: Secondary Alternative Education Programs, Youth Organizations, and Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice sites.

Statewide surveys were conducted in Winter 2001 that indicated many of the technical colleges represented a high level of activity with these populations. (Additional data collection needs to be explored in FY 2002 to see if those activities resulted in postsecondary technical college enrollment.) The surveys indicate that technical colleges have consistent and extensive recruitment/marketing activities in secondary alternative education programs (i.e., ASSET testing, tours, on and off campus visits, summer career awareness programs, instructor/counselor/administrator contact, etc.) that have resulted in nearly 2,700 students being informed of postsecondary technical education opportunities.

Virtually every technical college had some student recruitment/marketing activity with youth organizations within its service area. Surveys were designed to determine the level of this activity, specifically with the Boys and Girls Clubs located within the area. Many technical colleges provided information on other youth organization activities as well as information regarding technical college sponsored youth centered events, holiday celebrations, sports events, etcetera. The results were impressive. Over the past two years, nearly 25,000 youth across Georgia have been invited into the technical college environment to participate in various activities. Some of these activities highlighted career information and educational opportunities and options, others focused on specific technical and academic preparation, others celebrated holiday seasons, and still others supported sports events and teams. All exposed the community's youth to technical education, the faculty and staff, and, more importantly, to a dedicated group of citizens and educators that care about the community's youth and their future.

Surveys also indicate that, of the 25,000 youth exposed to the technical college system, nearly 6,400 gained this exposure through specified youth organizations. Of these, 1,113 were a member of a Boys and Girls Club.

Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice
DTAE and the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) signed a state-level Statement of Agreement designed to explore the options available in providing postsecondary technical education programs for incarcerated youth located at DJJ Youth Development Centers. These opportunities provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to successfully transition from secondary education to postsecondary education and beyond and provide access to the job market. An attachment to that agreement was the Operational Guidelines Between DTAE Technical Colleges and DJJ - Youth Development Center for Providing Postsecondary Technical Education Instructional Services. Both of these documents serve as "roadmaps" to assist technical colleges and youth development centers, located in their service areas, in developing collaborative instructional services relationships. Twenty-three technical colleges have a DJJ facility located in their service area. Community, faith-based, and private organizations also help to provide educational and career services.

Within DTAE, Augusta, Heart of Georgia, South Georgia, and Swainsboro Technical Colleges have the most developed relationship with DJJ sites. Augusta Tech expanded the number of instructors, as well as the number of postsecondary technical education program options beginning summer quarter 2001. East Central and Sandersville Techs are working with sites that provide educational services to these students, and they both are consistently enrolling students. Gwinnett and West Georgia Tech have established relationships with ancillary facilities to provide GED services. Together, these relationships produced 402 students that enrolled in technical education programs and/or GED services.

Georgia Department of Corrections
In FY 01, the Georgia Departments of Corrections and Technical and Adult Education agreed to collaboratively explore the options available in providing inmates located at DOC correctional facilities with postsecondary technical education programming opportunities. These opportunities should provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for a successful transition from an incarcerated environment into meaningful and productive employment and/or postsecondary education and beyond and provide ex-inmates with access to the job market, which serves as a deterrent from criminal behavior, thereby reducing recidivism.

North Georgia Technical College and Arrendale Correctional Facility were identified as the pilot site. In Winter 2001, North Georgia Technical College began the provision of postsecondary technical programming for this population in various technical certificates of credit for automotive, computer information systems, and culinary arts through an Instructional Services Agreement.

Health Care Workforce Technical Advisory Committee
The shortage of non-physician health care workers throughout Georgia and the nation is an alarming trend. Reasons for this shortage are numerous and profound and there seems to be no simple answer to addressing the need for qualified workers. Georgia has made efforts to address the health care workforce shortage in the past; however, most actions were short term and yielded little impact on long-term public policy. The Health Strategies Council established the Health Care Workforce Technical Advisory Committee in the summer of FY 01, at the urging of state leaders, the Georgia Hospital Association, and other health care advocacy organizations, to address this problem. The Committee was charged with considering short-term and long-term solutions to the growing need for health care professionals, focusing on the fields of nursing, allied health, and behavioral health.

Through the Office of Technical Education, DTAE was an active participant on the Health Care Workforce Technical Advisory Committee. In December of FY 01, the Health Strategies Council, which is responsible for developing Georgia's state health plan and addressing policy issues concerning access to health care services, and its Health Care Workforce Technical Advisory Committee completed a set of preliminary recommendations that was forwarded for consideration during the 2001 legislative session. As a result, the Governor signed HB - 470, establishing the Health Care Work Force Policy Advisory Committee to oversee and coordinate planning activities. DTAE is a member of this advisory committee and looks forward to being a partner in the solution of the critical healthcare workforce shortage in Georgia.

Georgia One Stop
In partnership with the Georgia Department of Labor, technical colleges are creating an electronic infrastructure that will allow Georgians easier access to workforce education and development services. In FY01, through an $825,000 grant from the Georgia Department of Labor, 29 technical colleges worked to expand, connect and strengthen this infrastructure - many through the "virtual" one-stop kiosk project. This project broadens access to workforce development services through the use of kiosks at technical colleges, local businesses, industries, schools, and state agencies. Users, through the kiosk's universal access and user-friendly format, will be able to gain knowledge about a broad spectrum of information including but not limited to: G1 - Georgia One-Stop Career Network; Vocational Rehabilitation and other services through the Department of Labor; Technical Certificate of Credit, Diploma, and Degree programs and short-term training services through individual technical colleges; and potentially services offered through the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Family and Children Services, such as Childcare, Food Stamps, TANF services, Child Support payment and training information through the Georgia Fatherhood program and Child Support Enforcement; and the many other services the collaborative partners provide. The effect of this availability of information impacts and expands training and employment services in the local communities. The newly informed public will access G1 employment and training services, increasing the community's literacy and postsecondary levels and, therefore, attracting new businesses and industries and, in turn, broadening the local workforce partnerships.

Georgia Postsecondary Education Collaborative Council
The Georgia Postsecondary Education Collaborative Council (GPECC) was created in 1994 by Commissioner Kenneth H. Breeden(DTAE) and Chancellor Stephen Portch (University System of Georgia) to assist them in refining and implementing the Student Centered Collaboration for Public Postsecondary Education in Georgia. As an outgrowth of the work of the Seamless Committee of the Governor's Education Reform Study Commission, GPECC studied the current practices in the transferability of general education credits from SACS-accredited DTAE schools to University System institutions. A committee of instructors from both systems has worked on developing freshman English and mathematics courses that can transfer from one system to the other.

Georgia P-16 Initiative
The Georgia P-16 Initiative is a statewide effort aimed at raising expectations and ensuring student success from pre-school through postsecondary education. As part of the Georgia P-16 Initiative, the University System of Georgia, DTAE, selected high schools, and representative employers are collaborating in the development and pilot testing of academic and performance standards and assessments of what it takes to succeed in colleges and universities, technical colleges, and the world of work. This program is called Performance Assessment for College and Technical School (PACTS). The first group of students to apply to technical and Regents' colleges under this pilot program will enter in Fall 2002.