Prescott Campus to provide Dispatcher Academy Training this summer

Yavapai Community College will be training the next generation of dispatchers at their first Public Safety Dispatcher Academy, June 6-17 at the Northern Arizona Regional Training Academy (NARTA).  The training will take place on Yavapai Community College’s Prescott Campus.

The Public Safety Dispatcher Academy has been in development since last Fall.  It was created by local law enforcement professionals to address a shortage of skilled dispatchers.

According to Mr. Jim DeLung, Ph.D., Director of the Prescott Regional Communications Center, “A good dispatcher knows how to read, listen and speak in a first-responder role. They need incredible communication skills to collect and relay information in a timely and often urgent manner.” Dispatchers  are multi-taskers, ready to assist at a moment’s notice, assessing emergency situations in real-time, coaxing out actionable details, controlling the emotions of the person on-scene, and relaying clear instructions to the proper authorities.

The Community College hopes to develop the academy into a six-credit certificate course under its Administration of Justice Studies (AJS) Program.

Offering three 30-minute classes in a variety of CTE areas; attendees encouraged to register for sessions prior to arriving on campus

Yavapai Community College will hold a special Career and Technical Education recruitment program on the Verde Valley Campus April 30.  It will feature an opportunity for prospective students to sign up for as many as three 30-minute sessions in CTE training offered on campus. Prospective students can experience different programs and take a class that may help them decide whether to seek a CTE future that could lead to a career in two years or less.

In a press release from the Community College that announced the recruiting effort, John Morgan, Yavapai Community College Dean of Career and Technology Education, said:  “This is a great opportunity for people to get a sense of not only what YC has to offer in terms of CTE programs, but also to get an idea of the amazing facilities and instructors we have.”

Attendees can take tours of CTEC, apply to Yavapai Community College, talk with a financial aid representative, and schedule to meet with an enrollment advisor to register for classes.

Those who wish to attend may register online at www.yc.edu/testdrive (click here to go to the registration site).

Additional recruiting efforts will take place at CTEC at the Prescott airport, the Prescott Campus, Prescott Valley Center,  and Chino Valley Center.

Learned basic carpentry and plumbing from Yavapai Community College Instructor Aaron Rodriguez during the course that runs 3 ½ weeks | Donated house to Humane Society

Cottonwood Community School eighth graders who completed a basic career and technical education carpentry and plumbing program at Yavapai Community College’s Verde Valley Campus celebrated their newly obtained skills by constructing a doghouse. The doghouse is described as custom-made, 2-by-4-feet, insulated and taupe-colored.

The program for these students lasted  3 ½ weeks and was taught by  Mr. Aaron Rodriguez.

In a press release from Yavapai Community College, Mr. Rodriquez explained that “Everything that we did, we discussed and considered how the dogs would feel about it.” The house has a 10-inch roof overhang that was designed to offer outdoor shade and the above-the-floor door opening was incorporated to keep the dwelling spider-free.

You may read more about the project, the children and the doghouse by clicking here.

Source:  Yavapai Community College press release by JJ McCormack, March 3, 2022.

First use of $400,000 used  to purchase  two (we think) concrete 3D printers back in  in February 2020

“Now they tell me a 3D printer can do my job?”

The following is a short history of this project.

Two years ago, January 31, 2020,  Yavapai Community College announced that it was launching  the Nation’s first 3D concrete construction program.  The program features emerging technology of 3D printing to construct houses. The Community College believes that by  using 3D concrete printers, consumers will save an enormous amount of time and money to construct a house. It is thought that the 3D printer would print the interior and exterior walls of homes using a special concrete mixture.

The program was approved and the budget altered to include  this purchase unanimously by the District Governing Board at its January 27, 2020 Executive Session.

Early estimates suggest the printers can have the foundation, interior, and exterior walls completed for a medium-sized home in 3-5 days. After roofing, electrical, plumbing, and other services are installed, it is surmised that these 3D printed homes could help alleviate Yavapai County’s attainable housing shortage.

At the time of the January 2020 announcement, the decision was made to use the machine(s) in an  experimental program set to open at the Chino Valley Center by  the fall 2020.  That was two years ago. Also, when the initial announcement was made,  the College indicated it would use   the machine(s)  to build a small manufactured home owned by the College that was in  need of repair.

Eleven months later, in December 2020, the Community College announced it had decided to construct up to three houses to showcase the ability of its recently purchased 3D concrete printers.  The project was to  go forward at the Chino Valley Agribusiness Center Property in Chino Valley.  Although Third District  Governing Board representative Paul Chevalier raised questions at the time about the use of the machines  on the Verde Campus (there are or were supposed to be two of them: a big one and a little one),  so far, the College has not indicated it intends to use the machines in any program at that site.  The Community College began  in December 2020 preparing to provide electrical, data, and water services to the construction site at the Chino Valley Center to support  the construction.

Start up company in Sedona?  Although little is known about exactly what is going on, information coming to the Blog indicates that the Community College has been working with a small start-up company in Sedona to create and patent the kind of cement that will go into the manufacturing process.  The work has been carried on at the Career and Technical Education Center located at the Prescott airport. There is apparently, although no one at the Community College has confirmed this, an agreement of some sort about the patenting and development of the concrete mix between the start-up and the Community College. The details are “hush hush.”

January 2022, the Community College announced student registration had opened for the first class to be  taught to use the 3D printing machinery to build a concrete house at the Chino Valley Center.  The class is “CBT250 – Introduction to 3-D Concrete Printing.” 

Note that Phoenix Channel 15 ran a story on January 5, 2022 about the Community College’s effort.  You may view the Channel 15 report by clicking here. 

Any concern that because CTE students must pay tuition for classes in spring semester rather than have them free as they were in the fall semester would reduce enrollment  appears unwarranted

Classes being offered for spring 2022 semester at the Career and Technical Education Center on the Verde Valley campus  are already full or filling.  Basic Carpentry II and Basic Residential Plumbing courses were filled almost as soon as the Community College published the list of available courses being offered in the spring 2022 session.  The Basic Residential Plumbing course has only three seats left.

The first class to fill was Basic Carpentry II, which was offered on Friday and Saturday.  Classes offered in the fall semester on Friday and Saturday were also the first to fill.  Surprisingly, the Community College offers only the one CTE class on those days. 

See below the current registration data of  four CTE classes being offered in the spring 2022.

College offers no explanation for surprise late announcement of the  tuition free classes

In a July 29 news release, Yavapai Community College announced that it was offering several  free tuition classes at its  Career and Technical Education Center (CTEC), which is located at the Prescott airport.  The surprise announcement came at a time when the Community College had been heavily marketing fee tuition trade skills classes only on its Verde Campus at its brand new Trade  Skills Training Center.  The College’s  fall brochures had highlighted several  free tuition classes offered at  its Trade  Skills Training Center  facility on the Verde Campus with no mention or suggestion of  similar free classes being offered at CTEC.

In the news release, the College said that “this new offer is in addition to the College’s one class free option for this fall, where all students in any program receive one class free of tuition.”  Some surmise that the surprise announcement might have come because of a perceived unfair treatment of students on the West side of the County.   Or, there may be other plausible reasons for the surprise announcement such as low  initial enrollment or an unexpected influx of outside money.  As noted above, the Community College offered no explanation for the sudden addition of the tuition free fall classes at CTEC.

The newly announced free fall semester classes  include students seeking a 3D Printing and Manufacturing Certificate, Unmanned Aircraft Systems Certificate, and an Advanced Manufacturing Technology AAS Degree.

Note:  The lined-out locations in the chart below are campuses or centers  the College indicated classes were being taught at, however, they appear somewhat inconsistent with the Community College’s on-line registration data.  Please check with the College Registrar if you are interested in any of them to determine where they are being offered.

3D Printing and Manufacturing Certificate tuition free fall classes:

• TDP 101 – Introduction to 3D Printing (3 credits) (CTEC).
• TDP 108 OR ELT 108 – 3D Printer and Operation Maintenance (3 credits) (CTEC).
• MET 200 – SolidWorks for Non-Engineers (3 credits) (only on-line).

Unmanned Aircraft Systems Certificate tuition free fall classes:

• UAS 100 – Introduction to UAS (3 credits) (CTEC and on-line).
• UAS 103 – UAS Simulations (3 credits) (CTEC and on-line).
• UAS 115 – UAS Monitor Systems (4 credits) (CTEC and on-line).

Advanced Manufacturing Technology AAS Degree  tuition free fall classes:

• IPT 110 – Industrial Shop Practices (3 credits) (CTEC).
• ELT 130 – Introduction to Robotics (3 credits) (Verde, Chino, CTEC).
• CNC 101 – CNC Machine Operator (3 credits) (Verde, Chino, CTEC).
• CNC 201 – Computer Aided Programming for CNC Machining (3 credits) (CTEC and also on-line).

One class full, another almost full, several around half-full and one showing only a single student enrolled so far; Administration gives optimistic report to Clarkdale Town Council on enrollment (as incentive all first semester CTE trades classes apparently tuition free)

Yavapai Community College has begun developing a Career and Technical Education trades training program in newly constructed CTE building cautiously.  It is, as one might expect, a first-year, first-time work in progress.

As of July 16, the construction (plumbing) class is full (exact number unclear).   The HVAC program has a total of 25 unfilled slots in its three courses that will accommodate 41 students (plus 10 more available from a wait list).  The CNC Machine Operator’s course has only one student enrolled so far; it can accommodate 20 students.  Enrollment numbers in the remaining courses is mixed with several around half-full. 

The College has initiated instruction in the Integrated Systems Engineering Certificate by offering one of eight courses needed to obtain the Certificate.  There was only one student enrolled so far in that program as of July 16.

At the Clarkdale Town Council meeting on July 13, the Administration sounded a hopeful note when it came to beginning CTE training in the new facility.   Vice President of Community Relations and  Student Development, Rodney Jenkins, told the Town Council that “we’ve done a phenomenal outreach along with a series of incentives to help students made a decision to enter into these trades. We almost went door to door [in addition] to our mailings and our letters.”  He also said that “we are very targeted in our outreach.”

On current registration, Mr. Jenkins, reported was  that “Most all of our classes in the Verde Valley Skills Center are almost full.  A couple of them are full.  Electrician, HVAC, Plumbing; there are maybe one or two seats left in those classes. We still have a month to go before classes start.  To start out this way, when in the beginning I was very, very nervous; the community has responded very well.”

You may view a video clip of Mr. Jenkins remarks to the Town Council made July 13 below.  You may also view below enrollment data as reported by the Community College as of July 16 in courses identified by the Blog as locating in the new Skills Center building as a part of the local trades education effort. 

VACTE will retain  Law Enforcement and Dispatch, Teacher Training I and II, and Construction Technology I and II programs at its campus on Highway 89 in Cottonwood

The Valley Academy for Career and  Technical Education (VACTE)  with a central campus located 3405 E. State Route 89A, Building B, Cottonwood, will be moving, or has already moved, five major Career and Technical Education programs to the Verde Valley Campus in Clarkdale for fall 2021.  Those five programs are:  Heating and  Ventilation, Manufacturing CNC operator, Phlebotomy, Plant and Horticulture, and Pre-Engineering I and II.

It is anticipated that the Horticulture program will take advantage of the new greenhouse on the Verde Campus, which was just completed.  The other four programs will be housed in the new 10,000 square foot Technical Education Center on the Verde Campus, which is moving toward completion and should be ready for August classes.

VACTE  will also offer Culinary Arts I and II at the Sedona Center. However, according to the VACTE website, the Sedona Culinary Arts programs are not available to high school students at the Camp Verde High School.

Three programs will be retained at VACTE’s central campus:  They are  Law Enforcement and Dispatch, Teacher Training I and II, and Construction Technology I and II.

The Certified Nursing Assistant Program  will continue to be taught at the Verde Valley Medical Center in Cottonwood. The Emergency Medical Services program and the Fire Service program will also continue to be taught at the Yavapai Community College training Center in Cottonwood.

The VACTE  is a public school district that works in partnership with Yavapai College and the high schools, charter schools, and home schools throughout the Verde Valley and Sedona to provide high school students with career focused courses where they can earn high school credits, college credits and industry recognized certifications.

  VACTE pays the majority of student expenses including college tuition, books, uniforms, and industry certification fees. Students must provide footwear, or other personal items, as required.

Already, 23 of 45 seats filled; Brewery Technology Certificate requires 16 hours of credit

The Brewery Technology Certificate classes will not kick off for the first time until August 16.  However, if June early registration is an indication, they will be near full. Registration for the courses as of June 27 showed  what appears to be immediate popularity of them with  23 of the available 45 seats already taken.  

The Community College has set  up an industry-standard pilot-brewery similar to those used by breweries to make small batches of beer for experimentation.  It will not  be doing a “tap” as the focus is on training students who are employable. A certificate in Brewery Technology requires successful completion of  four eight-week courses  totaling  16 credits.

Students will have the small pilot-brewery, a series of fermenters, a brew station, and some smaller brew kettles to make beer on their own.

The Community College does not intend to grow hops or other crops on its vacant 80 acres of land on the Verde Valley Campus.  Rather, it will purchase hops from sources in  the town of Camp Verde.