We have all been hearing about changes going on at the Wichita Area Technical College, and the reality is amazing. Yes, there are new buildings in-work at Jabara airport, but that’s only a small part of it. The really terrific thing is the changes in the way they plan to offer education and the partnerships they are creating. A major aspect of it all is providing a complete subject in a single piece and allowing the student to add on other pieces, like building blocks, to reach their goal. It is a very flexible and adaptive way to approach life long learning.
Seventeen SWE members and guests put on hardhats and toured the soon to be completed Gateway (administration) building at the National Center for Aviation Training. Also under construction at that location are a manufacturing training facility and an aircraft maintenance training site. After the tour we trekked over to the WATC Comotara Center facility. WATC President, Pete Gustaf, gave us a quick tour of that building and touched on the changes that have been made and those planned for the curriculum taught there. After dinner, Pete talked to us about the difficulties in designing an educational plan for jobs that are not even dreamed of and how to keep in front of the obsolescence curve.
Tags: construction, photos, technical education, WATC


