| DTAE
2002
Technical College System of Georgia
The Office of Technical Education fuels the economic growth and development of the state by providing quality technical training through its coordinated system of technical colleges. This office administers high-quality technical education programs and career transition services that meet the needs of current and prospective students, as well as the business community. The office oversees the administration of all publicly owned technical colleges and works with other public agencies and organizations to provide Georgia's citizens with a seamless educational system that is equally accessible to all segments of the population. Georgia's technical college system has grown from two institutions in 1943 to a statewide network of 34 technical colleges, 18 satellite campuses, four joint college divisions, and the Georgia Virtual Technical College. In FY 02,
the number of students enrolled in technical colleges to prepare for
employment or to upgrade skills was 268,118 - 142,074 in credit and
126,044 in noncredit programs. There were 23,624 graduates with 27,200
degrees conferred from Associate of Applied Technology degree, diploma,
and technical certificate of credit programs.
Instructional Support Services responds to the training needs of current
and emerging business opportunities in the community by delivering flexible
technical college programs. Programs are discontinued if benchmarks
for enrollment, graduation, and job placement are not met.
The GVTC online initiative began in the fall of 1998 with 132 students and 17 course offerings. For year ending 2002, student enrollment has grown from 7,744 in FY 2001 to 17,515 students, a 126.2 percent increase. Online course offerings showed an increase of 115.4 percent with 2,479 courses being offered this year. Programs of study now number 78 with the greatest concentration in the allied health and computer information fields. Eleven associate degrees, 15 diplomas and 52 technical certificates are currently offered with more in development. In addition to fully online courses, GVTC also offered 4,287 web-enhanced courses in FY2002, representing a 211.8 percent increase over the previous year with total enrollment in web-enhanced courses totaling 25,021 for FY 2002, a total increase of 129 percent. Over the past two years, the Georgia Virtual Technical College has seen an increase in the number of out-of-state and out-of-country students utilizing its online course offerings. During this time, students from 29 states and three foreign countries have used GVTC resources to further their educations. The greatest concentration of these students come from Alabama, California, Florida, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee with three (3) foreign students from the Bahamas, Nigeria, and Vietnam as well as two (2) soldiers based in Germany and Korea. The Georgia Virtual Technical College has maintained a phenomenal retention rate of between 73% -78% since its inception in 1998. This exceeds the national retention rate for online courses, which is less than 50 percent. Student satisfaction is necessary for growth. GVTC affords students the opportunity to offer feedback/input every quarter on instruction, course content and support services through the GVTC Student Satisfaction Survey. Student suggestions/comments have enabled GVTC to initiate positive change and thereby increase enrollment. This past year, 97% of GVTC students were satisfied with their online course and 96% of the students were satisfied with their online admissions experience. Services provided by the GVTC central office staff include Blackboard training, design and technical support, a portal website, a 24/7 help desk, 1-800 telephone number for general information, student services support, incentive grants for instructors to develop programs of study, and an online tutoring service for students. An automated admissions/registration/financial aid process was developed and implemented this year with training provided by GVTC for 85 student services personnel from across the state. Professional development opportunities for faculty are offered annually through the GVTC Summit and this year over 400 faculty members took advantage of best practices seminars, innovative technology labs and student services workshops. The Georgia Virtual Technical College utilizes a centralized, hosted learning platform, Blackboard, through an Application Service Provider (ASP) model. The Blackboard server has had over 32,209,868 hits this year and 2,240 faculty members have been trained on the Blackboard platform. To ensure the quality assurance of all online courses, GVTC has implemented a process whereby every course must meet quality checklist criteria and course standards, pass a peer review committee, and then be piloted as a web-enhanced course at the technical college before being launched on the GVTC website for totally online instruction. All online instructors must attend GVTC Blackboard training. GVTC also offers three continuing education courses in a partnership with BellSouth to provide career-specific training to develop skills that BellSouth and industry require for employment. With the influx of Latin American immigrants into Georgia, GVTC recognized the need for online courses in Spanish, and development of five bilingual technical certificates of credit was initiated this year with one certificate being implemented this year and the four remaining certificates to be operational next year.
To date, the PDC has taught more than 30,000 hours of IT certification training toward more than 850 exams, which included Comptia A+, Net+, Linux+, Security+, Cisco Certified Network Associate, Cisco Certified Network Professional, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (Windows NT, 2000, XP), Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, Certified Internet Webmaster, Sun Solaris Administrator, Sun Java Programmer. By providing training in-house through PDC, DTAE realized a net savings of more than $1,700,000. In FY 01, PDC began awarding Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and Staff Development Units (SDUs) to course attendees. In addition, since selection as a Regional Academy, the PDC will offer Credits toward the Microsoft Certified Trainer program.
Accomplishments in FY02 include:
Special Workforce Services helps students achieve their maximum potential through programs such as New Connections to Work and Georgia Fatherhood. New Connections to Work For 22 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 02, 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 02,
more than 7,000 TANF recipients received services through New Connections
to Work programs.
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.
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.
Student Support Services provides students with assessment, admissions, career planning and development, registration, placement, and federal/state financial assistance. Financial Assistance Services Since the inception of HOPE in 1993, 333,669 students have received
$346,152,624 in HOPE grants and 11,205 students have received $12,148,130
in HOPE Scholarships.
Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership At the GOAL banquet in May, after a well-received keynote address by state Senator Charles Walker, Commissioner Kenneth H. Breeden announced the finalists and then the state winners.
DTAE, FOX 5 Atlanta, DeVry University and Bill Heard Chevrolet jointly
sponsor the GOAL and Rick Perkins Award programs. Technical College presidents select Lighthouse 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. Held in Macon, Georgia, featured presenters included: Ms. Lou Russell, CEO/President of Russell Martin & Associates in Indianapolis, IN; Dr. George Baker, III, Professor Emeritus of North Carolina State University; Dr. Doug Bachtel from the University of Georgia; Dr. Timothy Mescon, HA & W Mescon Group, Atlanta; Dr. Jim McKenney, Vice President of Economic Development and International Programs, American Association of Community Colleges, Washington, D.C.; the 2002 GOAL and Rick Perkins Award winners, and Dr. Ken Breeden, DTAE Commissioner. Several panel presentations highlighted the event and included key representatives from business and industry.
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 forging new and significant
partnerships to increase awareness of and interest in technical education
on the part of Georgia’s young people who are involved in alternative
education programs, educational facilities within the Department of
Juvenile Justice and youth organizations; fostering collaborative programs
that help high school students complete high school requirements, gain
real world experience, and earn credits that can be applied to technical
college programs; connecting the work of WIA Youth Councils and the
Family Connection Partnership with Georgia School to Work partnerships
to develop a statewide Comprehensive Youth Development Strategy among
the state, regional and local partners involved in supporting youth;
leading the Early Childhood Care and Education collaborative initiative
involving the state’s leading childcare agencies with the goal
of providing statewide coordination of systems for professional advancement
in early childhood care and education; and contributing to the Health
Care Workforce Policy Advisory Committee.
A total of $786,500 was granted to five local StW Partnerships to support 13 five-year-model Jobs for Georgia Graduates projects. This effort increased total Department of Labor Jobs for Georgia Graduates sites to 40 and introduced the new five-year JGG model to Georgia. 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. In November 2001, 40 Partnerships were given the criteria for applying for a $25,000 grant for Technical Assistance and Training in their region. The due date for applications was April 1, 2002. The grant will support gap-filling strategies being implemented in the region by purchasing technical assistance consultation or training services for teachers, counselors, school administrators, employers, parents, and partnership members. A contract for evaluation services between the University of Georgia (UGA) and the Department of Technical and Adult Education (DTAE) was negotiated, approved and signed last quarter. Beginning immediately April 1st, the Occupational Research Group (ORG) in the College of Education began a two-year statewide assessment of progress in building School-to-Work systems. The report provided in July gives preliminary information and base line data resulting from an assessment of year 1, 2001-2002. Georgia School-to-Work state level leadership made a concerted effort to connect the work of WIA Youth Councils and the Family Connection Partnership (a non-profit intermediary organization) with Georgia School-to-Work Partnerships to develop a statewide Comprehensive Youth Development Strategy among the state, regional, and local partners involved in supporting youth. A State Level Partners Group, an interagency team from state departments and agencies, was organized to address state level policies and issues relating to youth. Part of the CYDS strategy included developing regional teams in each of the twelve economic development regions. These regional teams will provide leadership, serve as a framework for the development of strategies for effective youth services, and expand system-building opportunities that support youth. As the Fiscal Agent for the Georgia School-to-Work Initiative, the Technical College System of Georgia, negotiated, approved, and signed contracts with public and private organizations and individuals to help carry forward the goals of the initiative. The following training and technical assistance and consultant services were provided:
In FY 03, the Georgia School to Work Initiative will focus on three goals to sustain the principles of StW:
Tech Prep is a DOE/DTAE Collaborative which is designed to improve seamless student transition from high school to postsecondary technical education. Each of the 37 Tech Prep consortia involves a technical college or a college with a technical division with the secondary school systems in the college service delivery area. In FY 02, local consortia received more than $3,000,000 to implement components of the Tech Prep program. FY 02 data indicate there were 4,110 students enrolled in Tech Prep. Dual enrollment enables 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 colleges. This broad classification of secondary student crosses over several program lines (i.e., Postsecondary Options, Tech Prep, Youth Apprenticeship, and Dual Enrollment - 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. FY 02, unduplicated data indicate 7,361 secondary students were participating in this high school/technical college opportunity.
DTAE’s ECCE Program is poised to meet the needs of the recent mandates a for increased education and training for head Start teacher, Pre-K teachers, paraprofessionals and other early childhood professionals. As a result of an aggressive expansion and promotions campaign, ECCE enrollment at technical colleges rose a whooping 40 percent from spring 2001 – spring 2002. During 2001, at the recommendation of the Education Preparation Academic Advisory Council (EPAAC), DTAE formed a partnership with the Georgia Board of Regents (BOR) and created a sub-committee on articulation. The purpose of the committee is to develop a system of transferring ECE courses from technical colleges to University System of Georgia (USG) colleges and universities. The articulation sub-committee on Child Development/Early Childhood Education is made up of early childhood faculty from DTAE colleges and USG institutions and is co-chaired by DTAE and BOR staff. The committee has already identified a sequence of courses that should readily transfer from technical colleges to USG colleges and universities. The articulation agreement between Savannah Technical College (STC) and Armstrong State University (AASU) was finalized during a public signing ceremony in Savannah on August 30, 2002. The two institutions signed a course transfer articulation agreement that will provide students with the opportunity to complete an associate’s degree in Early Childhood Care and Education at STC and transition directly into the core early childhood baccalaureate program at AASU. The agreement marks an important step in addressing the shortage of well—qualified teachers in Georgia. In the spring of 2002, DTAE formed a partnership with the Office of Education Accountability (OEA) and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC) to assist the state with meeting the new education and training requirements for public school paraprofessionals set forth in the federal act “To Leave No Child Behind.” The Act requires paraprofessionals to comply with the act by:
As a member of the Georgia Paraprofessional Task Force, DTAE helped to develop the new state standards and certification requirements for paraprofessionals. In addition to serving on the Task Force, the paraprofessional assessment, which was developed in response to the third option, was administered by the technical colleges to the paraprofessionals as a public service to the community. The ECCE
Associate Degree Program at all technical college in Early Childhood
Care and Education – Paraprofessional Specialization is an acceptable
preparation program under the new federal requirements.
In FY 02, the Office of Technical Education continues to identify the technical college student recruitment and/or marketing activity that has resulted in technical college enrollment for this population. Statewide surveys indicate many of the technical colleges represented a high level of activity with these populations. The data 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 year, nearly 12,000 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. 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. Within DTAE, Augusta,
Central Georgia, East Central, Flint River, Gwinnett, Heart of Georgia,
Sandersville, South Georgia and West Central, 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
during FY 2002. 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. Healthcare Workforce Policy Advisory Committee Through the Office of Technical Education, DTAE is an active participant
on the Healthcare Workforce Policy Advisory Committee. Although DTAE
is engaged in each of the four key dimensions, particular attention
was given to the marketing and recruitment initiative during FY 2002.
Through the Georgia StW Initiative, the statewide AHEC system will be
able to expand the implementation of a variety of careers programs aimed
at youth and also a expand a model summer training program for teachers
that provides intensive instruction and tolls to promote classroom skills
and counseling in health careers education.
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The 2002 GOAL winner
is Mr. Johnathan Haley, an Associate Degree Practical Nursing student
from Athens Technical College. Winning the GOAL title was not the first
award for Haley, whose achievements include Who’s Who Among College
Students and Phi Theta Kappa. Already armed with an associate arts degree
from Truett-McConnell College, Haley plans to continue his education
after earning his associate degree at Athens Tech and pursue a bachelor’s
degree in nursing and post-graduate degree in anesthesia before launching
his anesthesia business. “I decided on healthcare as a career
so I could give something back,” Haley explains. In recognition
of his accomplishments, Haley was presented with the GOAL Medallion
and a fully loaded 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier from Bill Heard Chevrolet.
As the Student of the Year, Haley will serve as the Student Ambassador
for the Technical College System of Georgia. 
The
recipient of the 2002 Rick Perkins Award is Michelle Earley, an instructor
of Business Office Technology at Coosa Valley Technical College. Earley
has several notable achievements, including the Lighthouse Award for
teaching in 2000 and 2002. She also won the Chairman’s Award for
excellence in customer service and leadership from Proffitts’
Department Store in 1993 while working her way through school. Her local
activities include service with the Gordon County Chamber of Commerce,
the March of Dimes’ WalkAmerica, the Gordon County Leadership
Program and numerous educational committees. Committed to a life-long
career as an instructor/educator, Earley said her driving motivation
is the learning aspect of teaching. In recognition of her accomplishments,
Earley received a beautiful crystal award and a gift of $1,000.