February 11, 2010
East Arkansas Community College-Forrest City
Press Release

The Arkansas Delta Training and Education Consortium (ADTEC) has received a prestigious Bellwether Award from the Community College Futures Assembly.  The Assembly announced the honor in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 26.

ADTEC, which includes East Arkansas Community College, Mid-South Community College, Arkansas Northeastern College, Arkansas State University-Newport, and Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas, won the top Workforce Development award which recognizes strategic alliances that promote community and economic development.

The Bellwether Awards, established in 1995 and sponsored by the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida, are an integral part of the Community College Futures Assembly. The Bellwether Awards recognize outstanding and trend-setting programs and practices that are successfully leading community colleges into the future.

The Arkansas Delta consortium has trained more than 8,000 new and incumbent manufacturing workers in three years and more than 200 students in the first semester of enrollment for renewable energy technology. ADTEC has now been recognized for four straight years as a model program for workforce training.

The partnership is unique in that all member colleges have collaborated to share curriculum and support strategies while pursuing the ultimate goal of growing jobs and economic opportunity in the region.

High school juniors and seniors have the opportunity to enter an education/career pathway by enrolling in college-level programs on each consortium college campus, while concurrently earning high school and college credit. Students who successfully complete designated two-year programs earn a certificate of proficiency and up to 24 college credits that apply toward a technical certificate and associate of applied science degree. Students may go to work in the selected field of study, and return at any time to re-enter the pathway and achieve the next educational level.

College students, adult learners, incumbent workers and unemployed individuals may also enter a career pathway and advance through different levels of certification or educational attainment. The short-term, more immediate successes and ability to re-enter the workforce foster lifelong learning principles.