"Amarillo College recently received recognition for its efficiency when leveraging federal funding and received $10,000 to augment its robust hazardous-materials training program for Department of Energy (DOE) workers.
The accolades and the supplemental grant award were conferred at the national Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (PETE)/DOE advisory board meeting in May at Raleigh, NC.
AC is the leading higher-education training facilitator in the PETE/DOE consortium of trainers and receives $150,000 annually to train Pantex employees in the safe handling and transportation of hazardous materials.
AC utilized that funding over the past fiscal year to train 3,353 students in 210 classes, generating 9,996 contact hours. The University of Tennessee generated the second-most contact hours, 4,809.
Additionally, 94 percent or more of those who completed hazardous-materials training classes at AC have expressed satisfaction through standardized student feedback.
Jeff Wallick, PETE grant coordinator for Amarillo College, said it was gratifying to receive positive feedback at the national meeting, and that the College will use the unexpected $10,000 to offer even more hazardous waste operations (HAZWOPER) classes locally.
“Several individuals from both industry and federal agencies had very nice things to say about our rate of success,” Wallick said. “As a result of our presentations in Raleigh, we’ve been encouraged not only to apply for greater consortium grant funds in the future, but to also share our winning strategies with fellow training facilitators in other states.
“Equally exciting,” he said, “is that we’ve been asked to host the national PETE/DOE advisory board meeting in spring of 2019, and we’re very much looking forward to that.”
PETE is a nonprofit organization that helps facilitate partnerships with educational institutions, industry, and government. PETE administers the Community College Consortium for Health and Safety Training (CCCHST), which has nationwide training components for the Environmental Protection Agency and the DOE."
-Amarillo College
