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Compliance
Audit Report Index
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Comprehensive Standard 3.4.2
The
institution’s continuing education, outreach, and service programs are
consistent with the institution’s mission. (Continuing education/service programs)
aCompliance ___Partial Compliance ___Non-Compliance
Narrative:
Lawson
State Community College’s Corporate Services and Workforce Development
Division offer continuing education seminars as well as training for
business and industry. These
offerings are consistent with the institution’s mission of “providing
affordable and accessible lifelong learning opportunities in order to
prepare students for employment or career advancement…. And provide
customized training needs for business and industry.” (LSCC Mission
Statement) Lawson
State Community College provides customized solutions, testing, services,
and educational seminars for organizations in the automotive, business,
engineering, health, and manufacturing sectors. The goal of Corporate Services and
Workforce Development is to help companies add measurable value to their
daily operations. (Corporate
Services Vol. 1 No. 2; Corporate
Service Fall Schedule; Corporate Services Health Profession; Corporate
Services Automotive; Corporate
Services Brochure). The College provides a variety of educational
opportunities to facilitate workforce development and lifelong
learning. Specifically, Lawson State
Community College provides programs that:
- Enhance lifelong education and promotes personal
and professional growth
- Meets community needs and interests
- Strengthens employability of constituents and
promotes career enhancement
- Strengthens small business, workforce development,
economic and community development
To ensure quality educational programs, the Corporate
Services and Workforce Development Division seeks approval and/or accreditation
for its curriculum. Allied Health
Continuing Education seminars are approved by the Alabama Board of Nursing (ABN) and
automotive classes are certified by the National Automotive Technician
Education Foundation (NATEF) Continuing Education Automotive Service
Education (CASE)
division. (NATEF)
Evaluation results from continuing education short
courses (Evaluations)
are used to continuously improve offerings
for personal and professional development.
The results are used to ascertain the effectiveness of the course /
activity. Furthermore, student
satisfaction with these courses / activities is assessed to see if the
presentations met the participant’s expectation for personal improvement
and / or career advancement.
The
Lawson State Small Business Center (Small Business Center) offers assistance to current
and prospective small business owners by providing a variety of
information, guidance and training sessions. Generally, a nominal cost is associated
with these offerings. Upon request,
the Small Business Center can also design tailored business training for
individual business needs.
The Educational Support Services (Educational
Support Services) unit also offers outreach and service
via the Low Income Tax Programs.
Although housed in the Business and Information Technologies unit,
the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is also offered. Both are designed to extend services to
underserved populations in hardest-to-reach urban and non-urban areas to
increase the capacity of individuals to prepare and file feral tax
returns. The Educational Support
Services unit is also responsible for coordinating the offering of Adult
Education courses (Adult Education).
The Lawson State Community College Adult Education and
Skills Training Programs seek to provide accessible and quality adult
education services that will enable adult individuals to become literate,
employable, and productive citizens for the workforce. The mission further
defines the following core measures: enter employment, retain employment,
enter postsecondary education/training, and/or obtain the GED. The Lawson State Community College
service area benefits from classes and workshops designed to improve
academic and skills training. A grade of “B” was received on the last Adult
Education Report Card. The college
meets and/or exceeds the criteria for retention, post testing and goals for
employment. Currently, the program
has increased enrollment by 24% when comparing the enrollment at the end of
November 2008 with the closing enrollment of June 2008. From July 1, 2008 through December 2008,
533 received instruction, 87 of which received English as a Second Language
(ESL) instruction. Fifty-nine students
were tested between September 2007 and September 2008 using Work Keys. 47 or 79.6 percent of those students
passed. Between July 2008 and
December 2008, 22 percent of the students who had a main or secondary goal
of passing the GED tests or obtaining a secondary school diploma achieved
the outcome. Adult Education is evaluated by way of quarterly and annual
reports (Adult Education Unit Outcome). Each report is
submitted to the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education to which the
Alabama Community College System is accountable.
Documentation:
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