Associate’s Degree, Diploma And Certificates Steve Ebsen: Division Chair Public Services Western Iowa Tech Community College Sioux City, Iowa

 Established 1966 as a vocational school  Current enrollments 6700 credit and over 50,000 non credit  (7) AS degrees  (3) ASCO degrees  (46) AAS degrees  (38) diplomas  (66) certificates

 Serving 6 county area  Campuses located in 5 municipalities  Service area population approx. 175,000  Site of “United Flight 232” crash with 111 fatalities.  Competition: (at time of program creation)  None in South Dakota, Nebraska or Iowa at 2 yr level

 Title III grant to the college to start three new programs.  Provided for full time instructor/curriculum person, secretary and supplies.  DACUM (develop a curriculum) conducted with industry professionals. Task analysis and then courses developed

 Grant did not allow for marketing  Education of public/ college personnel as to what emergency management was  Traditional students did not want to become managers. Prefer to be first responders.  Marketing attempted to working adults. Many of those had schedule conflicts with college calendars

 Lack of internship availability  Hybrids don’t accommodate online students  Formal education not required for many positions  Professional Development Series is often the only requirement

 March 2008 the EDM program earned Accreditation by the Foundation of Higher Education Accreditation (FoHE) based on meeting 23 standards of excellence. Full time instructor left to pursue higher educational levels. College replaced with adjunct instructors. Course work then moved to an online format.

 Enrollments now consist mostly of working adults seeking: career advancement or a change of employment.  Much interest in converting work experience to credit. (military, law enforcement, fire, ems)  Training is often close, but does not line up course by course – so “Technical EDM” developed.

 Can bring in 27 credits of related training  Select 24 credits of EDM courses  Select 15 credits of general eds.  Serves well for our area, when the EM’s serve multiple roles and need experience in lots of fields.

 Older  Working adults  Part time  Many have Bachelors degree already  Often from distant areas, including over seas  Maintaining numbers, but limited change

 County Emergency Managers  Business Continuity type positions private industry  Managers of businesses – sometimes not related  Public Health  Hospitals  Security  Transfer to 4 year programs with 2+2 agreements

 US Dept. of Labor grant (Homeland Security)  To increase numbers of credit students and provide training for area responders in the HS fields.  3 year grant – ending Dec  Currently at 1300 Participants  Over 13,000 trained (capacity building)  Over 80,000 hours of training provided

 Credit enrollments have increased  Graduates have increased  All training is transcripted and available to convert to credit to apply toward a degree/diploma  Grant has benefited area responders, of which the majority are volunteers  Many applying their training toward the EDM program

 Marketing/Recruiting  Education of what EM is and job duties  Employment – (won’t happen to me!!)  Most EM’s in Iowa are half time  Graduates who won’t leave the area for employment

 Steve Ebsen  ext   