The weekly chat
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Flint Hills Technical College president Dean Hollenbeck chats with online readers.
Dean Hollenbeck, President of Flint Hills Technical College, participated in an online chat with Gazette readers Tuesday afternoon. Here is a transcript of the session:
Q How is the trucking school doing?
A The truck driving school is doing well. FHTC contracted with Safe Horizons out of Sabetha, KS to provide training here locally. The program is currently 6 weeks long and completers will receive a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) at the end of the program. We have many opportunities across the area to place our completers, and Safe Horizons has a list of companies that need qualified and well trained drivers. Our partnership with Safe Horizons has worked out very well. The truck driving school is doing well. FHTC contracted with Safe Horizons out of Sabetha, KS to provide training here locally. The program is currently 6 weeks long and completers will receive a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) at the end of the program.
Q What are the most popular programs at the Tech College and how many students are enrolled in those programs?
A We have several popular programs. All the health occupations programs are extremely popular. Our Practical Nursing, Dental Assisting/Hygiene and Paramedic programs (over 100 students) are always on people’s lists if they are interested in the Health field. Our Business Administrative Technology program has over 60 students. Networking and Computer Design are also very popular. I also have to include our Power Plant Technology, Graphic Arts, Automotive Tech, Construction, Machine Tool, and Industrial Engineering programs to name a few. All of these programs provide highly skilled workers to our workforce in the surrounding areas. FHTC has above a 90 percent placement rate for its completers and graduates for all programs at the college. The above programs are all high wage programs also.
Q What are some of the new programs you have started or looking at starting at the college?
A Starting this summer we will be offering the Dental Hygiene program. This program is a continuation (if wanted by the students) of the Dental Assisting program. We are excited about the program and have a large number of requests from students who are interested in this. The tough part of this is that we can only accept 12 students as we kick the program off. This is due to the limitations of the facility. Plans are being made to increase the capacity of this and other programs. Another new program is our Advanced Welding which we are offering in partnership with Sauder Custom Fabrication. This series of classes and certificates began in February of 08. We have several companies that are interested in our students as they achieve the certifications needed to be employed with the advanced skills needed. We are presently developing a multimedia program. Timeline for the startup may be Fall 08, no later than Spring Semester of 09. We have to work with several accrediting agencies and their requests so they can approve the program. Some of the new programs that peak our interest and we are looking at include Occupational Therapy, Manufacturing Skills, Geographical Information Systems, Fire Science, Alternate Fuels, Auto Body, Cosmetology, Horticulture, and Farm and Ranch Management. This is a partial list of possibles that keep coming up as we work on our 5-year strategic plan.
Q What jobs do you find are in demand?
A We have a high demand for jobs in all the Health areas. That is why these programs are so much in demand. Also, the Machine Tool and Industrial Maintenance programs have high demand also. Manufacturing is requiring a very highly skilled employee today. Our advanced programs train individuals in the skills needed. Our Machine Tool program has a million dollar lab that trains to meet the industry needs. As I mentioned earlier, all our programs have over a 90 percent placement rate.
Q What needs does the Tech College have and how do we compare to other institutions around the state?
A Comparing ourselves to other institutions around the state is sometimes hard. The institutions in Kansas have some of the same programs, however each institution also has some different programs and may have a signature program as well. In our case we have the Power Plant Technology program that no one else has. Our Dental Assisting program is expanding into a one plus one program which will incorporate the Dental Hygiene component. We will be the only institution in the state that has that option for its Dental students. Some of the needs of course relate to space issues and money. To create new programs and meet the requested needs of business and industry we need the space to hold a program and money to get it started.
Q How much does it cost to attend the Tech College and how much financial aid can students get?
A A student attending FHTC will pay $80 per credit this fall plus fees. The fees are different for each program. This equates to $1280 for a full-time student tuition only plus fees. We like to figure that the cost to each student will be approximately $2000 per semester on average which includes fees. Students who are eligible may apply for all Federal financial aid programs through FHTC and dollar amount varies based on a number of factors. Scholarships are available to all students enrolled at FHTC who are qualified.
Q Are you looking at expanding?
A Currently we are looking at options. What we know is that we are at capacity in almost all our programs. As we look at creating new programs to meet the increasing community and area needs, we have to have classroom space and lab space to make that happen. One of our objectives is to develop programs (i.e. welding) offered at night. However, that creates issues for the programs in place and the classrooms in use during the day. Because almost every classroom has program specific equipment located in it, the development of a new program cannot use some of these rooms at night because of the equipment issues. We are working on this and one way is to expand into another facility/building.
Q Where does the funding come from for the Tech College? Do you feel you receive sufficient funding from the state?
A We have two streams of funding. We have the tuition that students pay for the classes/programs they are enrolled in and the Post Secondary Aid that is earned by the institution and provided by the legislature for technical education. All institutions that provide technical education receive this funding and are prorated as to the number of contact hours/FTE per institution. We do not receive any local tax dollars which makes us very different and is somewhat of a disadvantage for us compared to Community Colleges across the state who do receive local taxes to support any technical programs they provide. One of the issues we face as a technical college is the high cost of delivering our programs. Most of our classrooms are filled with high cost computers and equipment that are needed to meet the local training needs. We have only a few classrooms that have only desks and chairs. These are used mainly for general education classes that require only minimal overhead to hold the class. So many of our programs are termed high cost. Do we receive sufficient funding? That’s hard to answer. For a couple areas I would say yes we do. For most of our programs that fall into the high cost classification (Graphic Arts lab for example) I would say we do not. Currently a new board has been created at the state level (Kansas Post Secondary Technical Education Authority) to look at these issues and become an advocate for technical education.
Q What are your goals for the Tech College?
A Our main and foremost goal is to meet the workforce demands of the community and region. We are continually meeting with local business and industry trying to forecast their needs so that we can train the students for employment. We have also implemented a Customized Training Division to work with industry and manufacturing in customizing their training needs- needs that do not necessarily fall into our anchor programs here at FHTC. Additionally, we are trying to put in place well rounded opportunities for all students at all levels of their educational career. Scholarships are available to all students and beginning this year the Jones Foundation will be providing a scholarship to any graduating senior from Lyon, Osage and Coffey counties to attend either Flint Hills Technical College or Emporia State University. Technical education is experiencing a resurgence of the importance it plays in workforce development and economic development in our community and the state, and FHTC is working hard to meet that need.
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