With about 35 programs available nearly 100 percent online and an offering of career tracts including civil and electrical engineering technology, it’s safe to say that Albany Technical College bears little resemblance to the votech of yesteryear. As the school prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2011, the advancements in technical education are ever clearer.

Albany Technical College has its roots at Monroe Comprehensive High School, and was originally named Monroe Area Vocational School. The school offered vocational educational programs such as cosmetology, electrical and plumbing. While those sorts of traditional programs are still available at the school, it’s hardly the core of 21st century technical education.

“We’re really transitioning into the technical end – computer information systems, health care technology,” said Wendy Howell, director of public information at Albany Tech, where health care programs include dental, pharmaceutical and radio technology. The school’s most recent offering in this area is the new health information technology program, created to help meet the demands of an Obama law that requires all health records to be standardized and electronic.

“There is a great need for graduates in this area,” said Howell of the new program.

To familiarize students with the environment and equipment they would likely find in work places such as Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Palmyra Medical Center, the college “set up (a lab) just as it would be at the hospital,” Howell said, “with the same software in order to do that job.”

About 70 percent of Albany Tech graduates find work within 30 minutes of downtown Albany, said Howell, in part because certain programs are designed to fit the local economy.

“We really rely on the community to tell us what types of graduates they need,” she said.

The college also relies on the community to donate equipment.

When the college built the first responders center, it counted on the community for an ambulance to help round out its hands-on training.

“We love to do that,” said Howell of partnering. “It’s really a win-win situation for us and the employers.”

Albany Tech’s first responders program is the only one of its kind in the state within the Technical College System of Georgia, Howell added.

Another transition into modern technical education is the offerings of online programs. Howell said there are 33-34 programs available nearly 100 percent online at Albany Tech.

And, “most all of our courses or programs have the hybrid option where half or more (of the program or course) is online plus hands-on training.”

Howell said the hybrid curriculum “definitely appeals to a lot of our students,” most of whom have part-time or full-time jobs.

The college has established computer labs on campus to ensure that students without home computers still have access to programs with an online emphasis. The new Logistics Education Center (formerly known as “Building K”) will also house a student center. That facility should be complete by March 2011, Howell said.

For several years now the college has established memorandums of understanding with four-year schools such as Albany State University and Valdosta State University in an effort to streamline students’ transitions as they continue their education. A key piece of that puzzle will come online in summer 2011, when the Technical College System of Georgia will abandon its quarterly schedule and adopt the University System of Georgia’s semester schedule.

“It’ll put us in alignment with the K-12 (system) and USG,” Howell said. “I think it’ll really increase our credibility.”

As its 50th anniversary looms, Albany Tech works to preserve its heritage, meet today’s needs and plan for a future whose requirements seem to rapidly change.

Albany Tech will bury a time capsule as part of its yearlong anniversary celebration. If the trend continues, technical education then will hardly resemble that of today.