Geocareers with a two-year college certification

by Dave Mrofka and Becca Walker, Mt. San Antonio College, CA

For a number of years, my colleague Becca Walker and I heard from many students at our institution (Mt. San Antonio College--Mt. SAC, a 2YC in Southern California) about how they loved geology and were interested in pursuing a geoscience career. However, many of these students expressed that they either were not ready to transfer to a 4YC or did not aspire to complete a 4-year degree. They were interested in working outdoors and, when we mentioned the geotechnical sector, liked the idea of a geotech career. We decided to address this need by creating a CTE (Career and Technical Education) Geotechnician Certificate program at Mt. SAC.

The spark for developing the Geotechnician Certificate this program was a direct result of our involvement in the SAGE-2YC program (Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education at 2 Year Colleges). During this multi-year program, Becca and I worked with other 2YC faculty "change agent" teams around the country to build regional networks of 2YC geoscience educators. Change agents were tasked with enacting individual, program, and institutional-level changes related to supporting student academic success, broadening participation, and professional pathways. We decided to create the Geotechnician Certificate program as part of our program and institutional-level changes.

Our first challenge was clarifying what the "geotechnical sector" means in the first place. Even though we had a general (but definitely incomplete) idea of which careers might be considered "geotechnical", we needed to understand the full breadth of possible career trajectories and positions for which a student with a Geotech certificate might qualify. By engaging stakeholders from local firms, public agencies, professors and forming an Advisory Committee (a requirement for certificate approval and curriculum approval), we learned that the geotechnical sector encompasses a large number of employers, including water agencies, petroleum companies, water testing firms, drilling firms, engineering geologists, solid waste management, and environmental cleanup firms, to name a few.

The next step: understand which technical and interpersonal skills would be most desirable to the widest variety of employers in the geotech sector. We had aided in our initial efforts by funding from the state's Strong Workforce Program (SWP) which is tasked with supporting career and technical education in community colleges. To create this skills list, we created a survey instrument focused on desirable skills and suggestions about what courses should be a part of the certificate and contacted approximately 40 agencies and firms in our region to complete the survey. We met with most of the survey respondents in person and others online or by phone. These meetings involved administering the survey and asking respondents about what they wanted and needed in an employee. Meeting in person was particularly helpful because it helped us find individuals willing to serve on the Advisory Committee for the certificate. As a result of these conversations, we learned that the primary desirable technical skills included data logging, soil compaction testing, sample chain of custody, report writing, water sampling, well sampling, soil analysis, HAZWOPR 40, and others.

Next, we moved on to developing the curriculum pathway for the Geotechnician Certificate. The program would be 4 semesters, with the last semester consumed by a work experience (internship) course. Therefore, our primary initial consideration was how much content and skills acquisition could be realistically implemented and achieved in 3 semesters of classroom instruction?

Based on discussions with local employers, we decided to embed skills within three new courses at Mt. SAC: Environmental Geology Laboratory (to complement our existing Environmental Geology lecture course); a geotechnical methods course focused on soils; and a methods course focused on water and environmental geoscience. In addition, we proposed the Work Experience course for the final semester of the program that would involve students completing an internship at one of the stakeholder's firms. Other courses include physical geology, environmental geology, elementary algebra, an information science class focused on Microsoft applications, elementary chemistry, a geology field studies class, soil science, public speaking, and Introductory GIS. In addition to serving geotech students, we were excited that the Environmental Geology Lab would provide another opportunity for Mt. SAC students to fulfill their General Education Laboratory requirement for transfer. Advisors were very keen to provide students with basic hazardous materials training, so we are also working on creating a HAZWOPR course; HAZWOPR is a popular OSHA certificate that provides training about basic protocols for dealing with hazardous waste scenarios. Adding the course to the certificate will also provide an income stream to support equipment and staffing needs.

There were, and continue to be, some major challenges to building the program that I imagine are similar for others building Career and Technical Education certificate programs. The biggest challenge was selecting the employment and success tracking codes (used by California to categorize certificates) that best fit our program. We discovered that our program didn't fit neatly into any single code because it encompasses so many possible career tracks. Rather than creating brand new codes, which would delay the approval of the certificate, we settled on "environmental tech". We also struggled to consistently "sell" the idea of a Geotechnical Certificate program to our department, though that's where the original idea came from. Some departmental concerns were related to which faculty would teach the geotechnical methods courses since we do not currently have a full-time faculty member in our department with a geotechnical background. We simply believed in the concept and in the faculty's capacity to learn the skills needed to teach the courses or find people who could. Overall, we have received a lot of support from our department and others at the college.

There are still some significant challenges. We are in the last stage of the curriculum approval process (with the certificate at the Chancellor's office level) but hope to receive final approval before we officially begin recruiting students for the Fall 2021 semester. The program was originally slated to begin in Fall 2020 but was delayed because of the transition to online classes in light of COVID-19 and the necessity of face-to-face classes for the geotechnical methods classes. Another challenge has been understanding what sort of equipment is needed to teach the methods classes. Much of our SWP funding has been used to purchase equipment suggested by the Advisory Committee, so we will be ready to use the equipment when the classes begin, but additional equipment needs remain. In terms of faculty training, we have externship funds for faculty that will connect willing instructors with local firms to learn important lab and field skills. One major way that our department has supported the certificate has been in consistently requesting a new full-time faculty position to lead the certificate program. The last major challenge is solidifying student internships for the Work Experience course that will be taken in the fourth semester of the program.

We are excited both to provide teaching and learning opportunities for faculty and to provide career guidance and training for many of our students at Mt. SAC who are excited about a well-paying and fulfilling career in a wide variety of "geotech" careers.