Prince William Sound Community College and UAS team up to provide fisheries education to the Prince William Sound region

Prince William Sound Community College is partnering with UAS-Ketchikan, beginning in fall of 2011, to offer an articulated version of the Associate of Applied Science degree and Certificate of Fisheries Technology. The goal of the Fisheries Technology Program is to provide training to Alaska students to enable them to gain employment or pursue higher education in the many fields related to fisheries that exist in Alaska. This new collaboration is the result of both campuses' interest in better serving the needs of the regional students. The program is distance-delivered with two required on-site sessions. Students can remain in their home communities and complete required core and general education classes through e-learning options in the UA system. Through the articulation, students will be able to take required field and lab session at PWSCC, will have the support of a regional mentor, and will have access to student support services through both the program and the partner campus.

"The idea behind the collaboration is to allow students to access the core required fisheries technology classes through the existing degree program, while allowing them the flexibility to take GERs or substitute classes at the partner campus, while providing students a higher level of support to help them achieve their higher education goal," said Kate Sullivan, Fisheries Technology Program director. Small branch campuses working toward this common goal will provide better service to students while maximizing efficient use of limited University resources.

Part of the collaboration includes adapting the core curriculum to include relevant information about the regional fisheries resources and how they are managed. In the UAS-K program that was developed to train Southeast Alaskans, for example, there is an introductory class required, entitled "Fisheries of Southeast Alaska." To better train students for regional employment opportunities we are developing a new introductory class for the Prince William Sound region.  Students will learn about commercial and subsistence and recreational fisheries of importance to that region as well as how those fisheries are managed. This new class will be piloted in the fall of 2011 and offered via distance delivery, making it accessible to students across the Prince William Sound region.

Our hope is that this new partnership will increase the capacity of the UA system to provide quality entry-level fisheries education, with the ultimate goal of helping students succeed. The A.A.S. degree in Fisheries Technology is fully articulated with the B.A. and B.S. in fisheries at UAF, so expanding accessibility to the A.A.S. degree may help present a clear pathway to students interested in a fisheries career.  In this model, we encourage participation of secondary schools, industry and higher education to share resources to provide a clear pathway for students interested in fisheries education and careers in the Prince William Sound region.

For more information about the new articulated delivery of the fisheries technology degree, please contact Alan Sorum at asorum@pwscc.edu or (907) 834-1667.