Every spring, Riverland Community College’s advisory committees gather for an All College Advisory Committee Banquet and Meeting. This impressive group combines Riverland’s career technical program faculty with area business and industry community members who serve as program advisors.

Program advisors add value to Riverland's career and technical training programs. Committee members’ expertise, time and dedication boosts Riverland’s ability to meet the region's workforce needs. This year, Kari Busch, Riverland’s dean of workforce education, and Lori Jensen, workforce effectiveness coordinator, reported on several projects designed to move Riverland’s career technical education from “present and relevant” to “prominent and essential.”

Such enhanced status is indispensable for Riverland graduates entering the workforce, facing the effects of climbing unemployment and globalization as well as ever-changing technology that shapes the landscape of production and services. Guided by advisory committees, Riverland constantly explores the skills needed for job readiness and the necessary innovative knowledge and skills needed to create world-class workers.

Equally important is Riverland’s commitment to its graduates to ensure access to job opportunities, livable wages, growth opportunity and marketability as workers.

One way to merge the interests of employers and the graduating workforce is to address the needs of both when first-class educators who enjoy each industry’s support create superior learning environments.

During the past few years, Riverland programs have pushed the limits of accreditation standards beyond those necessary to offer diplomas, degrees and certificates by incorporating national industry skills standards in every program. The significance of this initiative can be seen by understanding how the accreditation process works.

Higher education institutions are obligated to prove the quality of their programs and services through external experts. The accreditation process, then, confirms how higher education institutions meet official requirements of academic excellence, curriculum, facilities, personnel, etc.

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), an independent corporation and one of two commission members of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), accredits two and four-year degree-granting institutions in the 19-state NCA. The HLC evaluates Riverland on the same NCA elements of accreditation that all colleges and universities must meet for transfer and quality standards.

Riverland programs and advisory committees are committed to working beyond these regional standards toward specialized accreditation. Specialized accreditation ensures that the curricula and qualifications of the program in a specific field align with industry standards nationally and increases Riverland graduates’ marketability in their chosen careers.

Currently, Riverland has almost a dozen programs that have already achieved specialized accreditation, and nine more programs are currently working toward specialized accreditation this year. Once this strategy is completed college-wide, Riverland will be one of the few colleges in the United States whose programs meet national and international industry standards.

Workforce education is economic development. With the accreditation process and expertise of advisory committee members to guide us, we at Riverland have confidence that our programs are relevant to the workforce needs of employers. Employers and college officials work in partnership to ensure that employers have a skilled workforce and remain globally competitive.