Latest news with #CVTC
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CVTC to start new Library Director diploma program in the fall
EAU CLAIRE — A new technical diploma at Chippewa Valley Technical College looks to certify people looking to become library directors. The Library Director program is a one-year, 12-credit technical diploma for those who already have at least 54 college credits and need only a few courses to be eligible for a library director position. Jennifer Cook, Library and Information Services Program Director at CVTC, said, 'Since we started the library program, we have had a number of students who already have degrees or some college credits and have found themselves in the role of library director. 'The Library Director diploma consists of four classes that the Wisconsin Department of Instruction have determined library directors will need in order to be a director in a small public library. The classes include: Basic and Advanced Library Administration, Outreach and Community Services and Managing and Organizing Collections. The classes can be taken over the course of a year, two in the fall and two in the spring.' Online courses of the technical diploma would bring a grade III certification, which Cook said refers to libraries serving a population of 3,000 people or less. Grade II and I certifications would allow those to operate at libraries serving larger populations. With the introduction of a new program, all technical colleges go through a process of getting approval by the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) and the WTCS state board. 'We have to show them the need for the program, the strength of the program and the market demand for such a program,' Cook said. 'Because we went through this process when we created the Library and Information Services and could track how many students came to the college for these four classes we were able to show the need for the new certificate.' CVTC's new program is expected to start in the fall, as applications are currently open. 'Small libraries in the state of Wisconsin are truly centers of their community,' Cook said. 'This program will help students who live and work in these small communities serve their communities. Libraries need to be flexible, advocate for their communities and be a place where all community members are welcomed with open arms. Our students come out of the program prepared to do all of these things, and are ready to serve their communities in the best way possible. 'My hope is that we build strong community spaces with library directors who are trusted by their community and community members. Libraries have always been part of the state of Wisconsin and I am excited that the students I work with are in the position to keep that tradition alive. I have graduated so many students that will be great library directors and library workers, and I know any community would be lucky to have them.'
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CVTC receives new drone donation for training certifiate program
EAU CLAIRE — Chippewa Valley Technical College program instructor Shawn Crevitson said the donation of a drone to their drone training certificate program will allow students to learn about modern equipment they may encounter in the field. The donation comes from Maverick Drone Systems, based out of the Twin Cities, and includes a DJI T30 drone. It is priced roughly at $17,000 with features that allow students to develop aircraft maintenance and operation skills, as Crevitson said they intend to use it to teach agricultural drone capabilities as well as other potential unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) training courses. 'Our courses have grown to a four-course certificate now that includes a wide range of flight maneuvers and skill sets that students would need if they are going out into industry in the drone world across a number of different sectors — the agriculture world being one of those, 'Crevitson said. 'This drone will allow us to get one step closer towards integrating spray drones into the program. At its current status, it does need some work to get to a flight ready status. There's some pieces that kind of need to go with it to get everything up and running, so it is going to be on our maintenance side of things for now. Hopefully in the near future, when it's flight ready, then we'll be able to integrate it in other capacities.' CVTC's drone certification program started in 2019 with the intent to teach students about core courses related to regulation and flight. Courses are typically run late spring through mid-fall, as the summer months are often spent outside flying drones on campus. From practical application to commercial use, drones are becoming more commonly used across a variety of industries. On top of spray drones applying pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, ag drones may be used for plant health analysis or other applications in the field. 'This equipment is going to be nearly identical to what they would use out in the field,' he said. 'This particular model is a couple years back, but it still has much the same features and qualities of the newer models as well. So the newer ones just have slightly longer flight times or slightly larger capacities for carrying material.' Having this equipment is going to allow their students to be able to learn how they are designed, how they are structured, what goes into maintaining them and the regulations associated with it, Crevitson said. This in turn can allow students to be ready day one when they enter the ag industry or anywhere else. Crevitson said CVTC has been looking at integrating an agriculture drone into the program for a couple of years. Varied prices of ag drones that are used in the fields are a factor to consider when looking at equipment. 'We really appreciate that some of the industry folks have seen the need that we have and are able to contribute to developing the drone training courses that we have by providing some donations,' he said. 'And so hopefully in the near future, we'll be able to keep our courses at a modern leading edge equipment that our students can train on as well as providing more training scenarios for them that mimic what our industry members are going to look for when they're hiring a remote drone pilot.'
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Gov. Evers tours Lippert Components in EC, touts training grants
EAU CLAIRE — Gov. Tony Evers toured Lippert Components Inc. on Monday, hearing about how the company is using training grants to attract and retain new employees. Lippert Components employs 600 people locally, including 450 workers in manufacturing, said Brian Schudiske, Lippert Components senior vice president. The company has been growing 15% annually, and one of the buildings Schudiske showed off is just two years old. Evers saw components that go on vehicles such as Hondas and Toyotas, as well as a variety of other customers. Matt Jerlecki, Lippert Components director of learning, explained to Evers that they are working with Chippewa Valley Technical College to train new workers specifically on jobs available at their location on the east side of Altoona. Jerlecki said they have trained 122 people since launching their program in March 2024. Some are learning welding skills, while others are learning fabrication skills, such as using lasers. 'It's a lot,' he told Evers. 'It's expanded our pool of potential welders.' Jerlecki said it has been an important partnership with CVTC as they utilize a $400,000 Fast Forward Worker Training Grant. The company received the grant in 2024 from the Department of Workforce Development 'to provide real skills and certifications aligned with high-demand manufacturing roles in the Chippewa Valley region,' a press release states. 'They've been willing to innovate with us,' Jerlecki said of CVTC. 'It's been able to allow us to grow our team. And we can expand now to high-school students. Our success rate is 90-some percent.' Jerlecki added of the outreach to high-schoolers: 'When they are working for us, they are getting paid. The real plan is three years from now, they'll become our engineers.' The company routinely has about 95% of all jobs filled. Jerlecki said a lot of that is because they keep expanding. 'We're going to continue to expand which is why we built this building,' Jerlecki said. 'We want to do more business in Wisconsin.' Evers said he was impressed with the tour. 'What is important to me is how well the CVTC and Lippert are working well together,' Evers said. 'They are making sure they are trained at the highest level possible. It's good for Wisconsin. They are a great company; they hire a lot of people. It's nice to see the pieces working together.' Over the past six years, Gov. Evers and his administration have 'made it a top priority to address the state's generational workforce challenges and build a workforce prepared to meet the needs of a 21st-century economy by making smart, strategic investments in key sectors,' a press release from his office reads. Jerlecki said he was thrilled to have the governor come and see the facilities. 'It's great for us to be able to share the success of our team members,' Jerlecki said.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Annual STEM event continuing to grow
(WLAX/WEUX) – An annual event designed to get young women invested in science, technology, engineering and math is continuing to expand. The fourth annual Imagine Summit, took place at CVTC recently, where nearly 100 students across nine western Wisconsin school districts attended. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
CVTC hosts area colleges at regional esports tournament
EAU CLAIRE — Over the weekend, many students from five area colleges met at Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire to compete in a sport that is becoming increasingly popular. Rather than football or soccer, a number of college esports teams faced off in two different video games for their playoff matches. Advertisement 'We just finished up our regular season,' said Zach Janot, esports student coach at UW-Stout. 'We played eight games of that, and went six and two, so now we are here to qualify for the state regional in May.' 'This is a regional LAN, which is an in-person tournament, from the Wisconsin Esports Conference,' said Erin Hazen, CVTC coordinator of clubs and leadership. 'That conference is a conference of many local Wisconsin-based colleges. We have been competing since early February, and this is the regional LAN — this is an equivalent of playoffs in traditional athletics.' LAN, which is short for local area network, is a term that is used when devices are connected to each other in one physical location. While the esports teams compete online, the two-day regional LAN was one example of when players meet face to face. The two games which students played were Super Smash Bros, a series published by Nintendo on the Nintendo Switch, and Overwatch 2, a game playable on the computer published by Blizzard Entertainment. 'This is considered the northwest region of the Wisconsin Esports Conference,' said Hazen. 'We have UW-Stout here (in Eau Claire), UW-River Falls, UW-Superior, UW-Eau Claire and then CVTC.' Advertisement Especially as the popularity of esports continues to grow in universities, many of the members also see colleges accepting esports teams onto campus as a part of the positive trend. 'People are starting to see it as an actual collegiate sport on the level of football, baseball and basketball,' said Janot. 'It is a big deal, and it is going to continue to become a bigger deal. 'Esports is all about teamwork. We are a team no more than any other collegiate sport; we have to coordinate together, we have to play each other every day. Even though I am the coach, we all coach each other because some of us can only see something about the game based on the characters we play.' In the first round of the round robin matches on Saturday, Austin Aguiler, CVTC club president, faced off against one of the players from Stout in a Super Smash Bros Match. Advertisement After the first round, Aguiler shared his thought process while playing and said, 'I am trying to stay calm. I was in sports all throughout high school, so I have the mentality for competitiveness and understand staying cool and thinking during that time while trying not to make any mistakes. 'I think that videogaming in general has become such a part of kids' and students' lives, and so when you are looking at meeting students where they are at, esports is really one of those really excellent things,' said Hazen. 'People are still playing traditional athletics and doing a lot more things, but most people have a computer in their house or a Switch in their house. It is something that is a little more approachable for people of different abilities or social economic statuses, and that is something that the colleges really like too because you don't need to invest into these huge stadiums. If you have room for 24 computers or a place for a Switch or two, you are able to put it together and host things like this.' While teams played on Saturday and Sunday, other teams at regional LAN tournaments in the Wisconsin Esports Conference, or WEC, were also competing simultaneously. For CVTC, Hazen said being able to support esport LAN matches on their campus is a great opportunity. 'It is sometimes hard to stay at the level of the UWs, especially for a technical college,' she said. 'Being able to bring them here and have them in our space is a really awesome opportunity. Even just competing against them in general is not something you would typically see in traditional athletics, but in esports people with so many different skills can get together and play against each other. It is really cool to not only be able to play against them, but also to be able to bring them to our space and host.'
