Riverland honored career program advisory committee volunteers, program faculty and individual career program successes at an appreciation banquet in April at the Austin Campus. The event celebrated past achievements and focused on the future of each advisory committee.

The primary purpose of professional-technical education advisory committees is to promote collaboration between specific educational programs and business, industry and labor in preparing individuals to enter and succeed in their chosen career. Advisory committee members are volunteers who give time and expertise to help improve and update professional-technical programs. Historically, advisory committees have been an effective means of making the educational delivery system respond to the needs of a constantly changing labor market.

Jim Wendorff, vice president of human resources for Viracon, Inc. provided the keynote address: Workers, Past, Present and Future: Skills of the 21st Century, which focused on the changing workforce and the need for companies to provide training to increase skills,  improve efficiency and productivity and help employees advance to higher-level positions.

Robin Frette, learning and development manager for Federated Insurance and president of the Riverland Community College Foundation, presented Riverland’s Advisory Committees: The Next Big Step toward Best in Class. Frette’s presentation encouraged the advisory committees to work toward a shift in the way they approach the advisory committee process. She challenged the committees to choose a chair for each advisory committee from the private sector representing business, industry, labor or a non-profit agency related to that committee.