The continuing education program is located on the Polk Street Campus in downtown Amarillo. It offers work force training and personal enrichment.
Damaris Schlong, dean of continuing education, said that last semester, the youngest person to attend the program was 2 years old and the oldest to attend was 96.
“We have a great program here,” Schlong said.
The program offers more than 3,000 classes a year.
In 2008 and 2009, the program had an enrollment of 49,957 and a state reimbursement of $2.2 million.
Work force training is conducted to teach job-related material and to prepare students for certification of licensure in a particular field.
“AC has the highest continuing education work force in the state of Texas,” Schlong said.
Of 50 community colleges in the state, AC had the highest enrollment for the first quarter of the year.
Many professions require continual training or re-certification that can be completed through the program.
Leslie Shelton, work force training coordinator, is responsible for non-technical work force training that consists of preparing prospective employees for the work environment.
Those courses include speech, communication, collaboration, management and professional training.
The non-technical training is to help future employees, whether they graduated from college or not, to develop interpersonal skills to help the work environment flow smoothly.
“Our goal is to meet the needs of the community,” Shelton said.
Shelton works with local companies to help with employee training of occupational skills that may not be taught in the traditional style of schools.
“The two biggest options are the open enrollment and the work force training,” Shelton said.
Apart from work force training, AC offers personal development classes for fun or for personal improvement.
The personal development program includes classes for children from ages 2 to 14, people from age 15 and up and senior citizens from age 50 and up.
Luke Morrison, personal development coordinator, said the classes range from dog-training to computers.
“Every week, there are at least 700 kids in the gymnastics classes,” Schlong said.
“It is just awesome what is being accomplished.”
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