Cloud County Community College is taking the classroom –or more specifically, the laboratory – to students in Kansas who may have difficulty leaving their farm or their full-time job to train for the better employment opportunities in the fast-growing field of Agri-Biotechnology.
Cloud County's Agri-Biotechnology certification is designed to train entry-level workers for the exploding bioscience industry in the Junction City and Manhattan areas.
The Associate of Applied Science degree with 30-hour Agri-Biotechnology Certification equips graduates to work as laboratory technicians, research/development scientists, sequencing technicians, cell culture technicians, research, bioinformatics or protein purification technicians as well as cDNA library coordinators.
The Associate of Applied Science degree with 30-hour Agri-Biotechnology Certification equips graduates to work as laboratory technicians, research/development scientists, sequencing technicians, cell culture technicians, research, bioinformatics or protein purification technicians as well as cDNA library coordinators.
The mobile lab, which was introduced at this year's Western Kansas Manufacturers' Association Workforce Summit in Topeka, will travel to several communities in the northeastern part of the state and be available for students to learn and practice their skills in a state-of-the-art laboratory without requiring them to leave their farm or job to come to campus for classes.
It is designed to provide hands-on, specialized job-training that complements online learning classes.
THE VAN
Cloud County Community College's new Agri-Biotechnology laboratory is designed to provide hands-on, state-of-the-art laboratory training to online students in remote communities who cannot easily travel to campus to attend classes. The mobile lab was introduced at the 2013 Workforce Summit in Topeka.
EXPLAINING THE PROGRAM
Agri-Biotechnology program manager Brenda Edleston mans a booth at the 2013 Workforce Summit. The idea was to help summit participants learn more about the Cloud County Community College training curriculum. Cloud County also brought its new mobile training laboratory to the summit.
SAFE KEEPING
Computer equipment is locked down inside cabinets aboard the mobile laboratory to avoid having it damaged during transit.
LATEST EQUIPMENT
The latest in laboratory processing and analysis equipment is aboard the Cloud County mobile laboratory.
READY TO ROLL
Individual work stations inside the mobile Agri-Biotechnology laboratory enable up to eight students to work under the supervision of an instructor to get hands-on training when the lab visits their area. At left is program manager Brenda Edleston. Observation space for the instructor can be seen at the rear of the van.
EXPLAINING PROGRAM
Cloud County Agri-Biotechnology manager Brenda Edleston, left, and instructor Cathy Castle, offered visitors to the annual Workforce Summit in Topeka, a chance to see the new mobile laboratory that the program will use.