Occupational Expert Support
Programs longer than 200 clock hours must have and advisory board committe of at least five local business leaders plus school staff. It is a requirement to meet at least annually for this commitee to meet. During this meeting what is the minimum number of memebers in attendance for the committee meeting to be vaild?
Jorge,
The rule of thumb from my experience has been that you want a minimum of 3 external members to show at a meeting. That said, I did not find any reference to this in the TWC/ CSC regs or website. I called and asked your question. The response is that they do not require any specific number of attendees for the meeting to be valid. There are several cautions here: 1) for the benefit of the school/College, you want as many attendees as you can get; 2) CSC staff will look at your advisory meeting minutes going back to their last visit (2 meetings or more) so you don't want the same 1 or 2 attendees in your minutes and; 3) your accrediting body may have a numerical or subjective requirent for a level of participation from the field/industry.
JP Mehlmann
JP,
This is great information, the occupational expert support is essential to the quality of the delivery, equipment and to stay up to date in current and future events in the repective industry, taht way the information is relevant to all students in their field of study.
Thank you
Jorge
Are the occupational experts who originally were submitted with the program application the same people in the advisory committee? Can there be additional members on the advisory committee that weren't used as occupational experts?
Gemma,
Yes and no. A new program application requires at least 5 occupational support forms. It is common that your inaugural program advisory committee members all sign the forms. However, the five people who sign do not have to serve on your advisory committee, nor do all of your advisory committee members have to sign the support forms. Advisory members may fluctuate however, it is preferred to have long term members for stability and to help the school.
JP Mehlmann
Our accrediting commission requires two annual meetings and a minimum of three advisory board members to be present at each meeting. We try to keep our long term members active as well as add new members, with the hope that, when invited, we will average five or more who can join us each time. Our PAC members are very helpful on several levels and we do take their suggestions seriously. We communicate throughout the year and that is effective, as well. Some of their companies also offer our students internships, or in-house projects, so developing a good relationship with our PAC members has been beneficial to our school. One recent suggestion was to consider moving from traditional books to electronic text. We have looked into this; not all of our books are available and this method isn't quite cost effective. Do you know if any other schools are moving in this direction?
Thanks,
Pam
Pam,
I do not know of any schools that have moved to use electronic books. This is an excellent question to pose in the MaxKnowledge Lounge as well as in relevant groups on LinkedIn. There are likely schools that have done, or are considering this. In addition, the publisher's representatives that your school buys textbooks from are another source of information.
JP Mehlmann
From my experience you must meet quorum (If you have five experts on the advisory committee you must have at least 3 to meet quorum). It is important that you have a majority to insure you are gaining equal and an array of feedback regarding the curriculum of the programs.
Ashley ,
I don't believe the TWC CSC would look at it from that perspective (i.e. more than 50% attend for a given program). Schools should have advisory boards for each program that include enough people so that at least three show up for each program offered at the school. If you have members who seem to never show for meetings, I suggest you establish criteria for replacing them with people who can make it to meetings and contribute. Although there is no stated requirement for the number of attendees, three is commonly thought to be the minimum for an official advisory committee meeting. If the advisory committee members are needed to review a new program application (PS-302), then five are needed to complete the form for Occupational Expert Support. The TWC CSC requires at least an annual meeting. Many schools have two or more meetings per year. This is a good practice, especially if you don't have three or more attendees for each program at your first meeting of the year.
JP Mehlmann
Good rule of thumb would be to have a representative for each program that is an administrator, have an instructor for each program, and outside representative for each program representing. We've also included graduate students for at least three of our programs and school administrative staff representing career services, director, and executive staff. May sound like over kill but this covers all interested parties and covers all areas of a program of study academically and professionally.
Minnie,
I certainly agree with involvement of staff and faculty in your advisory board (committee) meetings. However, it is desired and possibly required by accrediting to have 3 or more participants from outside the campus. In addition, these external members should represent employers that hire graduates.
JP Mehlmann
For a valid meeting your institution should have mor than half of your members in attendance.
Randall,
I don't believe the TWC CSC has any exact formula or number in mind for a valid meeting. Rule of thumb (see the rest of the thread) is that 3 minimum (external, Non-school personnel) are needed but 5 are preferred, for each program or group of related programs offered at the school. If a meeting falls short of the desired attendance, it is wise to schedule another meeting prior to the end of the year.
JP Mehlmann
Our school has the requirement of accreditation of at least 3, but we start two months before any advisory board meeting to secure members for our meetings in each of our program areas. We want as much of a variety of responses and recommendations as possible in the different programs.
Dan,
You seem to have a good understanding of the rules. If you do not already do this- I suggest inclusion of select faculty to your PAC- Program Advisory Committee (or Board) meetings. Also, detailed meeting minutes and documentation that you implemented actions as suggested by PAC members.
JP Mehlmann
We contuduct 2 PAC meetings a year and we always try to have at least 5 members present. We typically have 10-12 members, some returning and some new, and this mix has yielded great results. Without this kind of industry support our program would not be what it is today
We try to invite our strong employer partners that tend to participate fully in all that we ask: externships, meetings, surveys, placement leads, etc. Have found that the employers who truly care about what we're doing will take the time to critically evaluate the curriculum at these meetings and offer up genuine feedback.
