Skill Standards for Professional-Technical College & Customized Trainers

Professional Technical Instructors Resource and Assessment Guide:

• Cover Pages (3.6 MB)
• Table of Contents (1.0 MB)
• Section 1 (600 KB)
• Section 2 (1.24 MB)
• Section 3 (560 KB)
• Appendix (560 KB)

Curriculum Guide for Professional Technical College Instructors:

Introduction

Course 1:
Teaching and Facilitating Learning - Level 1

Course 2:
Teaching and Facilitating Learning - Level 2

Course 3:
Planning for Instruction

Course 4:
Assessment for Learning

Course 5:
Manage Learning Environments

Course 6:
Human Relations in the Classroom

Course 7:
Learning Styles

Course 8:
The Adult Learner

Course 9:
Developing & Reviewing Programs

Course 10:
Integrating Cultural Diversity into Curriculum

IMPETUS

The development of skill standards for professional-technical college instructors plays a critical role in the community and technical colleges' efforts to ensure that faculty are well-skilled to teach the curriculum necessary to train students for jobs in our ever-changing technical world. The concept of the skill standards project developed out of frustration for a process that had not changed in thirty years and did not reflect our contemporary college workplace. The Vocational-Technical Council felt that there was a strong need to develop curriculum preparing professional-technical faculty based on standards developed by master teachers and therefore the vision of the project was formed.

PHASE I

Phase I of the project began forming in the fall of 1998 and was completed in June of 2000.

Creditable skill standards and competencies for professional-technical instructors were developed with the help of 78 instructors from Washington State's 34 two-year colleges. Together, with a steering committee comprised of business and industry leaders, labor, and university representatives, the participants identified and validated 10 critical functions and 56 key activities. Basic employability skills for teaching careers were also identified. The foundation skills were based on broad workplace categories known as SCANS (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, U.S. Department of Labor).

The 10 critical work functions identified for professional-technical instructors were the following:

A. Manage Learning Environment
B. Develop outcomes, assessments and curricula Learning Environment
C. Develop and review programs
D. Provide student instruction
E. Provide support and guidance to students
F. Perform administrative functions
G. Create and maintain a professional environment
H. Promote the program and recruit students
I. Learn and adapt new technologies
J. Perform program management functions.

National Skill Standards Board guidelines were followed in establishing these standards. Each standard is detailed with key activities required in this function, performance indicators describing how well this work should be done, technical knowledge and abilities required to complete these tasks well, and foundation employability skills. All this work was explicitly identified by professional-technical college faculty throughout the state of Washington.

CUSTOMIZED TRAINERS

The project extended itself to include professional-technical instructors who offer customized training in industry, large corporate trainers and independent trainers who customize their training for both business and industry and the colleges. A group of 50 participants composed/reviewed the standards for customized trainers. The same 10 critical functions identified for professional-technical instructors were validated, with a few changes to the key activity areas. The final document reflects the diversity of expected outcomes for trainers based on when, where and for whom the training is provided.

PHASE II

Phase II of the Skill Standards project began in July 2000 and is scheduled to be completed in June 2001. This second phase will rewrite the WAC or laws regarding certification for professional-technical college instructors and will produce training materials -a curriculum guide, training videos, CD Rom applications, and online learning opportunities-and a new process and support structures for improving certification of new vocational college instructors.

^ back to top