Environment, Health & Safety - Environmental Technician, Central Wyoming College
Program Design & Assessment
Overview
The Associate of Applied Science degree in Health and Safety is designed for students interested in the safety and compliance fields within the energy sector and other industries.
The general education requirements are designed to encourage students to develop critical and creative thinking, computation, communication and technology skills. The program requirements for the Health & Safety Technician provide students with a basic understanding of biology and chemistry related to the environment and the energy industry in addition to state and federal environmental laws and regulations. Students will also develop skills in worksite safety, incident prevention, incident investigation, management and training.
Strengths of this program
This program is extremely significant to the local energy industry, CWC has many industry partners that have provided financial input.
Types of students served
There has been an exerted effort to recruit students from the Wind River Indian Reservation. Many of these students will not move away form their home to attend a 4-year college and if they are interested in a college degree, must attend the Wind River Tribal College (limited offerings) or CWC. Many on the reservation would like to see the tribes have control over their resources and industries. They are legacy environmental issues that need to be monitored by skilled personnel. The EHS-ET students are not like most of the students on campus as they are focused on specific technical skills: water and soil quality, toxicology, geospatial technology. They are often employed full- or part-time and often have to juggle family obligations and traveling long distances to campus.
Program Goals
The goals of this program are as follows:
To train skilled environmental technicians to work with resource extractors and environmental protection agencies.
The learning goals were informed by the following resources:
Industry request for skilled workers in our community.
How program goals are assessed
We have none in place at this time.
Design features that allow goals to be met:
Industry partners will be essential.
Alumni Careers
Graduation rate
This program is only a few years old. There have been 4-5 majors and graduates per year. Many students are working through the scaffolded certificate, credential and degree. In 2013 geographic information systems (GIS) has been added and has attracted more students (10 in the program this year).
Careers pursued by our alumni
Graduates will have the necessary background to describe and respond to environmental hazards. Skilled environmental technicians can provide many professional services including: soil, water, and emission compliance; environmental sampling; industrial hygiene; professional consultations and many more.
Courses and Sequencing
Diagram of course sequencing and requirements
Entry into the degree
Environmental Science, General Industry Safety, Environmental Geology
Core Courses
General Industry Safety
Intro to Environmental Science
Problem Solving (MATH)
Environmental Regulatory Agencies
Safeland Basic Orientation
Technical Writing (WR2) OR
Microcomputer Applications
Introduction to Chemistry
Environmental Compliance & Technology
Hazardous Waste Operations & Emergency
Response
Environmental Field Methods
Introduction to Mapping/GIS/GPS
Elective courses and Requirements
There are no electives in this program.
Capstone
An internship serves as the capstone experience for this program.
Supporting Science and Math Courses
Problem Solving (Liberal Arts Math), Introduction to Chemistry,