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Home / Washington Business - September/October 2005 / Workforce Washington: Centers of Excellence Ensure Health of State's Economy |
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Workforce Washington: Centers of Excellence Ensure Health of State's Economy |
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Written On: September/October 2005 |
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Written By: by Mike Hudson |
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The word excellence is too often used to describe things that are just average or even mediocre. The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, however, has created eleven Centers of Excellence throughout the state to insure that businesses in Washington remain truly excellent.
Centers of Excellence are colleges designated to be statewide leaders in specialized workforce education and training for industries that help the state’s economy grow, according to the State Board.
Centers serve as a point of contact and resource repository for industry trends, best practices, innovation and professional development. They also maximize resources by bringing together workforce education and industry partners in order to develop highly skilled employees for targeted industries.
While a Center of Excellence may be housed in one college in one part of the state, a primary goal of the center-of-excellence experiment is to disseminate the knowledge, training and resources related to targeted industries, industry representatives, community-based organizations, economic development organizations and other institutions of higher education throughout the state.
In addition, the centers provide coordination, coaching and mentoring linking education services and industry needs.
Washington’s Centers of Excellence are:
• Center for Information Technology Excellence
Bellevue Community College
• Center of Excellence for Process Technology
Bellingham Technical College
• Center of Excellence for Energy Production and Distribution Technology
Centralia College
• Materials and Process Development Center
Edmonds and Everett Community College
• Washington State Center of Excellence for Careers in Education
Green River Community College
• Center of Excellence in Homeland Security
Pierce College
• Construction Center of Excellence
Renton Technical College
• Center for Manufacturing Excellence
Shoreline Community College
• Northwest Center of Excellence for Marine Manufacturing and Technology
Skagit Valley College
• Agricultural Center of Excellence
Walla Walla Community College
• Allied Health Center of Excellence
Yakima Valley Community College
For more information about Centers of Excellence, contact Michelle Andreas of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges at mandreas@sbctc.ctc.edu.
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