Society for Engineering Education, 2008 The Center for Water Resource Studies and the Bowling Green Community College of Western Kentucky University has formed a partnership to address a Water & Wastewater Operator/Technician shortage anticipated over the next few years as "Baby Boomers" retire. The Water and Wastewater Technician Training Institute (WTTI, pronounced "witty"), is a partnership with the employment sector (a growing number of water & wastewater utilities/municipalities/districts), state primacy agencies and technical assistance/trade associations to refine an industry needs driven curriculum that utilizes on-line course delivery to provide options for both traditional & non-traditional students. The partnership is revitalizing an existing Associates Degree program entitled "Water Utilities Management" and integrating 4year transitions through formal articulation agreements. WTTI takes a pedagogical approach to elevating and transforming the water and wastewater operator positions from trades of last resort, to professions of choice, and integrates practitioners into the recruitment, retention and educational process to achieve a coupled education, training and capacity development environment. A gradual and strategic elevation of the perception, both internal and external, of the trades, through a combination of increased capacity, mobility and accountability will attract high school students whose interests and scholarly record fall between the traditional trades/vocations and academically-based professions, and through inappropriate choices limit their career advancement potential, and elevate skill levels in the critical environmental and public health functions of the water and wastewater utility sector. In order to limit the hurdles associated with integrating regulatory, trade association and academic principles into a single, functional, coherent framework, WTTI is initially focused on Kentucky and Tennessee. However, as a demonstrably functional framework is put in place, extrapolating to address other regional policy, academic discipline and industrial sector issues becomes a logistical rather than conceptual challenge. Partnering utilities and municipalities are developing internship and cooperative educational opportunities to ensure work-based experiences for students in the program, while the trade associations have committed to developing scholarship programs to lessen the financial disincentive for potential students. Academic content is provided by core university faculty, while practitioner oriented content is provided by qualified trade association and utility/municipality staff eligible for adjunct faculty status. Committed to the precept of open-knowledge, WTTI is extending and coupling an open-source hybrid practitioner cybercollaboratory (based on Drupal) with an open-source course management system (Moodle) to integrate the learning environment with practitioners and enhance retention of both students and the retiring practitioner knowledge-base. All instructors (academic and practitioner) involved in the program will undergo collaborative professional development to ensure that they are receptive to the unique structure of the program. All aspects of the program will be available through this on-line environment, allowing current practitioners to participate both as mentors, and as students pursuing career advancement goals. Experiential components of the program include on-line virtual activities, as well as opportunities provided by partnering utilities and municipalities local to the student. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2008.
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