Transcript:

I’m Penelope Schmidt.  I’m the Director of Workforce Development at Wiregrass Georgia Technical College and I work in the office of Special Services and Projects.  Our office also includes Angela Crance, Roy Warren, and Daphne Horton.  The focus of what we do is workforce development, leadership development, and new program development. 

In the area of workforce development, we offer employment testing, and actually what we use is the ACT WorkKeys Assessments, and we do job analyses as well.  And then based on the job analysis, we’re able to help an employer to hire people who better meet the qualifications of the job based on the analysis.  

In the area of leadership development, we have an annual leadership symposium called The Gathering of Eagles, and that is an opportunity for us to bring in both national and local speakers who have varying highly successful business experiences, and they come in and they share their ideas and their best practices with us.  It’s also a great opportunity to network with local business leaders. 

In the area of new program development, we do needs assessments to determine what businesses need in this area, in our service area, and we then determine what kind of programs we can develop to meet their workforce needs.  And right now what we’re working on is respiratory therapy, associate degree in nursing, engineering technician, and construction management.   We’re also a military friendly college, so we’re looking at ways to expand our opportunities for Veterans.  

Much of what we do involves partnering with other organizations, Valdosta State University, high schools, businesses, and so if there’s any way that we can partner with you to help you be more successful, or if we can help you in any other way, please give us a call at (229) 333-2121.