Certification
Wisconsin Technical College System Office
4622 University Avenue
PO Box 7874
Madison, WI 53707-7874
608-266-1207
FAX: 608-266-1690
TTY: 608-267-2483
http://systemattic.wtcsystem.edu
General public site
http://www.wtcsystem.edu
Jump to Occupational Experience.
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Jump to Bachelor's Degree Equivalence.
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An instructor is required to have occupational experience in a target job
of the program that he/she is assigned to teach. There must be a relationship
between occupational program outcomes, program advisory committee composition,
and occupational instructor certification.
The WTCS has had a strong linkage with apprenticeship since the system was
founded and this linkage is also true in the area of certification. There
are no college degrees associated with many areas that involve apprenticeship.
The role of the master craftsman in providing training to apprentices is recognized.
The concept of a bachelor's degree equivalence follows from this relationship.
The requirement that occupational experience must be appropriate to the area
being taught comes from this long standing relationship with apprenticeship.
A great deal of work has been done to identify what should be considered
appropriate occupational experience for many instructional areas. These efforts
have allowed a great deal of input from WTC districts as to what should be
considered appropriate occupational experience. These documents also identify
the job duties that an individual should have performed. This information
is critical when the job title is not one identified as supporting certification
for a given instructional area. The documents that have been developed have
been distributed to District Certification Officers. Supervisors should check
to see if they have the materials developed for their areas.
Situation 1: Mary Smith applies for a job as an Accounting instructor.
She has a B.S. degree in Accounting and four years of part-time experience
as an Administrative Assistant. Will this information support a certification
request for instructional area 101 Accounting?
Situation 1 provides an example of a job title that would not appear to
support certification for instructional area 101 Accounting. The same would
be true if a district intended to utilize Mary Smith to teach Adult and Continuing
Education (ACE) courses numbered in the 101 Accounting area. It is possible
that Mary Smith performed accounting functions on her job that could support
certification or assignment in the 101 Accounting area, but this would have
to be documented. Securing this additional information will result in the
individual receiving the necessary certification without undue delay. In the
case of an ACE instructor, it may eliminate the need to obtain this information
from an individual long after the individual taught the course.
Situation 2: George Jones, a metals teacher from a local high school,
has nineteen months of full-time experience as a welder, 2500 hours of experience
in a machine shop, and 390 hours work in sheet metal. He has a B.S. degree
in Industrial Arts. Will this information support a certification request
for instructional area 442 Welding?
Situations 1 and 2 both point out the need for the individual with an earned
baccalaureate degree to have a minimum of two years (4,000 hours) of appropriate
occupational experience. Mary Smith's four years of part-time occupational
experience may not have amounted to 4,000 hours. Assumptions are not made
by state staff when certification requests are processed. George Jones does
not have 4,000 hours of experience as a welder. His other occupational experience
in machine shop and sheet metal cannot be used for welding unless additional
documentation can establish that a sufficient amount of time (five months)
was spent performing job duties associated with welding.
Occupational subject instructors are expected to have 4,000 hours of appropriate
occupational experience while actually employed in business and industry.
For an occupational instructor establishing a baccalaureate degree equivalence,
a portion of an individual's experience as a teacher aide or lab aide in
the WTCS system may be recognized as occupational experience under the following
conditions:
The work experience as a teacher aide or lab aide may be accepted toward
the required 4,000 hours of occupational experience by formal action of the
State Certification Committee.
Documentation of appropriate training must be submitted in support of certification requests. The following will be acceptable documentation:
Training which would not be recognized as sufficient for an instructional
area, may be recognized as sufficient for certification for a single course.
This is consistent with recognizing some occupational experience as sufficient
for a course, but not supporting certification for a program.
Non-transcripted training may satisfy the training requirement in the code,
while not contributing towards the B.S. equivalence. Forty hours of non-transcripted
training, properly documented, is equal to one credit. If the non-transcripted
training cannot be properly documented, including the actual number of hours,
it will not be recognized towards the B.S. equivalence.
There is a considerable variance between programs regarding what might be
considered the normal or required amount of training for an instructor. The
availability of formal training specific to the program will be a major factor.
The number of years since the individual entered the workforce will be a factor.
Forty years ago many individuals obtained employment as secretaries as a result
of the high school training they received in Office Occupations. Some of the
earliest people working with computers had no specific training in computers,
but simply grew with the business.
Training records are not always well maintained by business and industry.
A supervisor can provide a statement regarding the type of training provided
to the individual. However, an individual may have received that training
from a different company or many years before becoming employed in the technical
college system. There are also cases where individuals are self-employed.
In some instances, it may be necessary to have the individual identify the
type and quantity of training. The District Certification Officer will need
to take reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of these statements. This
practice has been followed for many years regarding the verification of occupational
experience.
District Certification Officers are encouraged to utilize the State Certification
Officer when dealing with questionable situations before the individual is
hired or assigned. Unique situations will not automatically be ruled out because
the established parameters did not consider such a situation.
Situation 3: Sally White applies for a job as a fluid power instructor.
She has a B.S. degree in Home Economics and twenty-eight months of full-time
occupational experience as a fluid power technician. Sally taught Home Economics
courses at the high school level for six years prior to obtaining an associate
degree in fluid power. Will this information support a certification request
for instructional area 612-Fluid Power Technology?
Sally White could indeed be certified for instructional area 612-Fluid
Power Technology. She could also be utilized to teach ACE courses numbered
in the 612 area.
The certification code requires a baccalaureate degree or equivalency before
certification can be granted as an instructor. There is no requirement that
the degree be in the area that the individual will teach. The variety of
programs offered in the WTCS would prohibit this type of language in the
certification code. There are numerous WTCS programs for which there is
no college degree that offers preparation for WTCS instructors.
There is a need to find a common base when determining whether an individual
has a bachelor's degree equivalence. This base is figured in hours. Any earned
credits are converted to hours by multiplying the number of credits by 110.
Industry training for which credit has not been awarded is converted to credit
at the rate of 40 hours of training equal to one credit. Therefore, forty
hours of industry training are equal to 110 hours when determining a bachelor's
degree equivalence. Only occupational experience appropriate to the program
being taught will be recognized for the purpose of determining a bachelor's
degree equivalence. The combined total must equal 14,000 hours.
After an individual has obtained a degree equivalence, it is considered
the same as if he/she had earned a degree.
Situation 4: Wally Brown has an associate degree in accounting, three
years of full-time experience as an accountant, and two years of full-time
experience in data processing. Will this information support a certification
request for instructional area 101-Accounting?
Wally Brown has an associate degree. This usually amounts to 64 credits.
Therefore, 64 is multiplied by 110 and the amount is equal to 7,040 hours.
Mr. Brown has three years of full-time experience as an accountant. This would
be figured at 2,080 times three years, for a total of 6,240 hours. The combined
total would be 7,040 plus 6,240, which is 13,280 hours. Therefore, Mr. Brown
could not be certified as an instructor for instructional area 101-Accounting
because he needs 14,000 hours. He also could not be utilized to teach ACE
courses numbered in the 101 area.
It is critical that supervisors understand when certification should be
requested for an instructional area and when it should be requested by course.
There are numerous problems with the current taxonomy where significantly
different programs are housed under the same instructional area.
Core courses play a critical role in preparing students for a given occupation
and they are almost always taught by occupational subject instructors. Core
courses are identified with specific programs. There is usually no difference
between requesting certification for a particular core course or for the entire
instructional area identified with the program. A request for approval status
for course 10-101-110 Accounting I requires the same occupational experience
for the instructor as a request for instructional area 101 Accounting.
There are also courses which are identified as supportive courses. These
courses play a significant role in the program and are often utilized in more
than one program. Approval status will be granted for a supportive course
when an occupational instructor is certified for the program containing the
supportive course. Approval status will be granted for a supportive course
when an academic instructor is certified for an instructional area which is
reflected in the title of the course. An example would be certification of
a mathematics instructor for a supportive course identified as business mathematics.
For both the occupational and academic instructor, the course must not be
identified as a core course in any other program. When the course is identified
as a core course in a different program, the instructor must be able to be
certified for the instructional area identified in the course number.
Core courses common to more than one program are recognized as common core
courses. They are occupational specific to a cluster of occupational programs.
Approval status will be granted for a common core course to an occupational
instructor certified for the program containing the common core course.
Supervisors must be aware of course content, the role that the course plays
in the program where it is used, and the staffing that might be used to deliver
the course when determining whether the course should be identified as a core
or supportive course. A good understanding of these items will result in high
quality instruction for the students, while maintaining the greatest amount
of flexibility for the assignment of staff..
There are also circumstances that will allow for approval status for one
or more core courses of a program, even though the individual cannot receive
certification for the instructional area associated with the program. One
example might be courses that could be taught by a practicing attorney in
a police science program. The position of attorney is not a target job of
a police science program. The attorney would not have the experience necessary
to teach many of the courses which are a necessary part of the police science
program. However, there may be some courses involving legal proceedings where
the quality of instruction could be enhanced by using an attorney as the instructor.
Situation 5: Jane Downs is a certified welding (442) instructor.
The district wants to use her to teach course 421-321 Blueprint Reading. Under
what circumstances could she be certified to teach this course?
Course 421-321 Blueprint Reading, may be a supportive course. This course
might be used as a supportive course in the welding program and in the machine
shop program. If that is true, Jane Downs could be given approval status for
the course. An instructor holding certification to teach the machine shop
program would also be able to receive approval status for this course.
Situation 6: Tim Johnson was originally hired to be a nursing instructor.
He was provisionally certified for instructional area 510 Nursing. He was
also granted approval status for course 512-314 Special Procedures in the
Operating Room. Due to a cutback in the nursing program, his entire teaching
assignment will be in the 512 Operating Room Assistant area. What changes
must be made regarding Mr. Johnson's certification?
Situation 6 presents another situation that supervisors must be aware of.
Tim Johnson may have only 2,000 hours of occupational experience necessary
for approval status for course 512-314, if he was employed prior to May, 1993.
If Mr. Johnson's teaching assignment will be changing from nursing to the
512 Operating Room Assistant program, his certification will have to be changed
to reflect the assignment. He may need an additional 2,000 hours of occupational
experience before he will be able to obtain a five-year certificate for the
512 area. This would also be true if Mr. Johnson held approval status for
the entire 512 area, instead of just approval status for the single 512 course.
There are numerous instructors that had a sufficient amount of appropriate
occupational experience for approval status under earlier certification codes
, but they would need to obtain an additional amount of occupational experience
should they ever be granted provisional certification.
Last reviewed: January 29, 2002
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