Economic development is an important component Riverland Community College brings to the region. The Riverland Training and Development (RTD) division, formerly known as the customized training division, is a resource for business and industry that advances the economic vitality of southern Minnesota. It is the rapid response arm of the college, dealing directly with the workforce skill needs of employers.

Through the work of eight training representatives, RTD provides training products and services in five major programming areas: computer, business and organizational management, trade and industry, healthcare, and fire/industrial safety.

The division is a full-service instructional arm of the college. Not only does RTD participate in the traditional scheduling of hourly training geared to teach specific skills sets such as Continuing Education Unit (CEU) training for nursing and healthcare professionals, real estate licensure, electrician CEU, underground storage certification, steam engineering licensure training, fire fighting and several other areas, it is also responsive and accountable to the training needs of the local workforce. In addition, RTD coordinates educational programs delivered in prisons in Waseca, Moose Lake, Lino Lakes and Rush City.

RTD looks beyond traditional training, concentrating on assessment and qualification of clients’ training needs and providing solutions to identified employee skill gaps through specific training focused on those gaps.

At the request of more and more companies, the RTD division is also involved with credit-based training initiatives. This allows employees to gain a skill set and provides a transcript, or record, of the training.

Employees benefit from the opportunity to apply the training toward an eventual degree and the transcript provides the employer a &uot;third-party&uot; credential that identifies the skills and knowledge obtained. The RTD response time can be faster than the traditional college approach and can provide credit-based training at the location, time of day and time frame desired by the client.

Another important focus of the RTD division is to facilitate new course and program development. Over the past few years the division has developed and initiated programs such as Microsoft networking certification, network cabling specialist, e-commerce, Cisco Academy, Viracon University, prison programming, Command Spanish, expanded fire/safety training, heavy equipment operations, HVAC, and alarm and communications certification.

Fiscal year 2001-02 was the division’s most successful year, ever. Accomplishments included:

Initiating training contracts with more than 100 business/industry clients

&045; Serving more than 400 business/industry clients through company sponsored training

&045; Serving 4,600 business/industry unduplicated students

&045; Serving more than 12,000 duplicated students (an increase of 3,000 from the previous year)

&045; Receiving an overall satisfaction rating of 99.57 percent from students served and 100 percent rating from business/industry clients served.

The Riverland Training and Development division is well on its way to another successful year in fiscal year 2003. For more information about the Riverland Training and Development division, visit the college Web site at www.riverland.cc and select &uot;Business/Industry.&uot;

James R. Davis is interim president of Riverland Community College, which has campuses in Albert Lea, Austin and Owatonna.