By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Along with providing students with an education, one of Barton Community College’s goals is to meet regional workforce needs. The college in Great Bend benefits from hundreds of partnerships including advisory boards consisting of professionals in the community.
Steve Riat, with Nex-Tech, serves on the Information Technology advisory group for the college.
"The Barton College teams listens to our feedback," said Riat. "I see action over the years. They do different things that we talk about. I sit in a room with other people like me in the community, especially with tech, we talk about AI and its impact in business and schooling."
Tandi Mai, Little Panthers Preschool Principal in Great Bend, serves on the Barton County Early Childhood Advisory Board.
"We're looking at these pre-service teachers and programs being rewritten where we can have Barton County students come into our preschool," said Mai. "They can fulfill some of those course requirements so we can grow our own teachers and community...we're hoping to keep them here. We all know there is a teacher shortage. If we can give those students that are inspired by children to come into our building to do that, that is exactly what I want to do."
The Barton Community College Foundation is a key resource and partner to the institution’s workforce units by offering scholarships, faculty mini-grants, program funding and equipment acquisition.