Community Colleges of Spokane, with support from industries here and in the state, is introducing several new programs this year that aim to prepare students for advancement and entrepreneurial opportunities within targeted fields.


Two programs, one in transportation and logistics management and the other in retail management, will begin this fall at Spokane Falls Community College. At Spokane Community College, a new massage therapy program has just finished its first quarter, and it will be joined this fall by the new Center for Entrepreneurship program.


Mary Harnetiaux, a spokeswoman for the colleges, says such new programs often are developed with suggestions from community advisory boards. The goal, she says, is to provide education that aligns with real needs in the local marketplace, so students can prepare to fill niches in the work force.


Advisory committees are extremely helpful in terms of identifying emerging career fields that are in need of workers, Harnetiaux says.


Dan Ewers, vice president of transportation for Inland Empire Distribution Systems Inc., of Spokane Valley, was on the committee of industry leaders and educators that helped drive the creation of the new transportation and logistics management program at SFCC, which offers a two-year associates degree or a one-year professional certificate.


Ewers says he was excited to participate in the committee, as there isnt a program quite like SFCCs here. While there are some four-year degrees in logistics management, he says, this gets more to the point of the things we deal with on a daily basis, and provides potential employees with a background to get them started on the job. Darrell Mihara, dean of business and work-force education at SFCC, says the schools research found no similar programs in Washington state, though he says there are some on the East Coast.


Mihara says when department members heard on the street about the potential need for such a program, they put some feelers out there. With a strong positive response from initial contacts and the focus group that was formed, the school proceeded to develop a curriculum.


The curriculum includes 18 credits of transportation and logistics courses, such as transportation systems and logistics and supply chain management, which are offered online, making them accessible to people who work full time. Those courses make up the certificate program. Management and communications courses, some of which must be taken on campus, are added to arrive at the associates degree, which is also partially transferable to four-year colleges.


For the first quarter, Mihara says, the school will be able to use instructors already on staff for the courses, though some people with additional expertise in the field may be added later.


Many of the courses we already teach are part of the degree, so we can utilize instructors we already have, Mihara says.


Ewers says such transportation and logistics management skills are valuable not just to shipping and warehousing companies, but also to any company that has its own warehouse.


When we are trying to fill warehouse lead and dispatcher positions, people with more of this background have a broader knowledge base to bring to their job, Ewers says. He says the company also pays for some education for employees, and may encourage some employees to consider taking the certificate program to further their education in the field.


The other new program under the auspices of the SFCC business and work force education umbrella that is the retail management professional certificate, Mihara says.


An industry organization called the Western Association of Food Chains has been teaming up with colleges across the West to offer a certificate program that fills a niche in the industry, he says.


Mihara says the association identified specific competencies needed for workers to advance to management and supervisory positions, and that many of the food chains involved in the educational effort are offering incentives and subsidizing the training for employees to take such courses.


Again, a lot of the courses are offered online, with others scheduled in the evenings, to aid participation by people who are in full-time jobs and looking for ways to advance in their retail fields.


The entire certificate program, which entails earning about 50 credits, will take most students about one and a half years to complete, Mihara says, and students can enter the program at the beginning of any quarter.


The curriculum includes courses in communication, business math, human relations and computer applications, accounting, management, marketing, retailing, and human-resource management.


SCC Programs


Across town at the SCC campus, the new massage therapy program started at the beginning of this summer, and the first students are expected to wrap up their work at the end of spring quarter 2008. The program is offered as a one-year certificate or a two-year associates degree, says massage therapy instructor Marti Thomas.


She says a lot of people were waiting for the program to begin, and already the first group of 23 students, close to the maximum of 25 per class, is completing its first quarter. By spring quarter, the students will offer discount massages to the public to hone their skills, but for now, they practice on each other. Like many of CCS vocational offerings, the courses are held in the evenings to accommodate students who are working while attending school.


Thomas says the program includes business classes to guide students who wish to open their own practice. Thomas herself has owned A Compassionate Touch Massage here for the past nine years.


The colleges new Center for Entrepreneurship will launch this fall partly as a way to wrap business around other degree programs, such as the massage therapy program, says the centers director, Julie Litzenberger. Litzenberger, who also is culinary department head, says that many of her culinary degree students envision themselves owning a small business.


By the end of the two years, they can cook, Litzenberger says, but the students often lack the business acumen they will need to strike out on their own.


At the Center for Entrepreneurship, students will take 30 credits in the three-quarter course, taught by a mix of instructors and community business professionals, Litzenberger says.


The center is being funded by the CCS Foundation with $185,000 that will be used both for instruction and to remodel space in SCCs Old Main building, which includes a multipurpose classroom and a boardroom for presentations and meetings.


Each student will get a laptop to use with the same standard business programs on it, so each individual is operating on the same technology, Litzenberger says.


Litzenberger says the program differs from other small-business curriculums here by serving individuals who need more than a cursory overview, but less than a four-year degree in business administration.


At the community college level (the students) tend to be a bit older. Theyve got some life experience, some work experience. They are coming back to school to realize a dream or do something they wanted to do, Litzenberger says.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at [email protected].