SKILL PANEL REPORT California's Water Industry - Cuyamaca ...

SKILL PANEL REPORT California’s Water Industry9CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITYIS SHOWING THE WAYPanelFindingsIssues• No equivalent to CSU Fresno’s California Water Institute andInternational Center for Water Technology among community colleges• Water technology program varies from college to collegeRecommendations• Explore four year degree in water technology• Explore articulation of community college credits to CSU degrees• Establish a lead college to coordinate curriculum and program developmentComments“Before we put together this meeting,we didn’t know each other existed.”The panel convened for this meeting knows how critical it is to put a workforcedevelopment program in place for California’s water and wastewater utilities.By the second day of the meeting, panelists recognized that the utilities,industry clusters and job seekers throughout California would be better servedif they continued their collaboration.However, funding for additional panel meetings is not in place. This meetingwas funded by a grant to Cuyamaca College’s Environmental Training Center.Looking ahead, developing and implementing the panel’s recommendationsacross the 20 or more community colleges with water technology programs,and launching programs, perhaps, at additional colleges, will require extensiveresources and coordination.An option to consider is to assign responsibility for coordination to a singlecollege. The basis for this recommendation is California State UniversityFresno. Panelist Dan Clawson is a project manager for the university, whichhosts the California Water Institute and International Center for WaterTechnology, and coordinates the water technology program across the 23 CalState campuses. How Clawson and Cal State Fresno approach relationshipbuilding with the private sector should be considered a best practice approachfor this panel, too. This would be a large and challenging project and, perhaps,another opportunity to tap into the resources available through the Doing WhatMatters initiative.Cal State FresnoWater Programs49