GMC launching water tech degree program

Gil Pound, The Union-Recorder, Milledgeville, Ga.
·3 min read

Apr. 26—Georgia Military College last week announced the launch of a new degree program designed to develop a pipeline of certified, educated water and wastewater treatment operators.

GMC will begin offering online courses toward its new two-year water technology degree this fall. Students can either take the courses independently before entering the workforce as a water/wastewater treatment operator or simultaneously while working in the field as an operator trainee.

The local community college partnered with both the city of Milledgeville and environmental consulting firm Woodard & Curran in creating the new program. The city will offer career opportunities to program students and graduates. Woodard & Curran's piece was in helping to develop the curriculum.

"By having Woodard & Curran serve as subject experts, we are confident in the quality of our program, and we know we will stay on the cutting edge when it comes to training and embedding work skills into our program," said Kate Pope, GMC director of business and community outreach.

During Wednesday's ceremony announcing the new pathway, Pope shared that the journey toward creating the water technology degree started with a question posed to Milledgeville City Manager Hank Griffeth: "What problem can we solve?" Griffeth was quick to point out the shortage of certified water treatment operators both locally and beyond. Pope later met Woodard & Curran's environmental consulting client manager Corey Babb at a Georgia Chamber of Commerce event, and the parties got to work.

"Our water-wastewater infrastructure is what makes this nation strong as a bare basic minimum for life," Babb said on why Woodard & Curran chose to get involved. "Without that we're in a lot of trouble."

Griffeth last Wednesday explained that water treatment operators advance professionally from Class 3 (basic) to Class 1 (advanced) based on two components: experience and performance on certification examinations.

"The city already through full-time employment hires Class 3 operator trainees, which gives individuals a full-time job with benefits to meet the required experience component and also to give them some on-the-job training in an attempt to assist them with the examination component," Griffeth said.

The city manager added that success rates on the certification exams are "less than optimal" locally and statewide. GMC's new degree is aimed at fixing that all while finding a way for the college to reach more students.

"From this partnership the city of Milledgeville looks forward to a pipeline of trainees who will be in a better position to successfully reach all levels of operator certification," said Griffeth. "That is an extreme need, not only in our community, but as I've mentioned statewide and nationwide. Thank you for developing this partnership. It will in fact allow us to grow our own for water and wastewater treatment professionals here in our community and statewide. We're excited about this partnership, and we look forward to others that may be forged in the future to meet the needs of the professional workforce in the city of Milledgeville and betterment of our community in the years to come."

"At GMC we take our role of being a community college quite seriously," said GMC VP of online education Dr. Jeff Wells. "We realize that as part of not only this community, but also the larger Georgia community and the digital community, we have an obligation to serve the needs of those places where we have made a footprint. The rollout of this degree program is part of that."

The water technology degree program will be online-only to begin with, but Pope said the plan is to offer the degree in person at the main campus sometime in the future.