March 2, 2016 | SharkAdmin Last week, the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees approved two new programs at Northwest Vista College: Associate of Applied Science in Pharmacy Technology and an Associate of Applied Science in Customer Service/Sales Operations and related certificates. These two programs have been in the planning stages for months and were developed in response to the demands of our local job market.Although NVC has been offering a Pharmacy Technology level-one certificate since the college first opened, the new associate degree will provide NVC graduates with more marketable employment opportunities, as well as an opportunity to continue their education at the bachelor and/or master’s level. Pharmacy is a billion-dollar industry, which is projected to have a 28 percent job growth in the San Antonio area, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. The customer service degree is completely new to NVC, and it’s our response to the needs of area employers such as Nationwide, Frost Bank, Broadway Bank, Hilton Hotels, Courtyard by Marriott, Wells Fargo, and Fairway Landscape and Nursery. These business partners shared that within the next three to five years, they will hire more than 1,700 employees in customer service at an annual salary of $40,000 to $50,000. The board also approved for NVC to offer Level 1 Certificate and Marketable Skills Achievement Award for Customer Service Specialist, as well as Continuing Education Award in Customer Service Specialist and Customer Services/Sales Operations. I would like to thank the NVC Workforce Education and Training team for the research they conducted and for collaborating with our local employers in creating these programs for our students. They, as well as the NVC Community Development team and others within the college, worked with our NVC Workforce Advisory partners and members of the NVC Business Council to align the core curriculum for these new programs with the needs of our community. This collaboration will have a lasting impression on job creation, relations with our local community and retention in the San Antonio area. It can also serve as a collaboration model for NVC to validate the alignment of NVC’s 42-hour core curriculum with the essential and leadership skills being sought after by employers.
