Celebrate Learning
Page 2
Wavebreak
by Brian Hall
Wavebreak is Tulsa Community College’s answer to Information Technology education latency challenges. Due
to the nature of the technology adoption lifecycle, technology education is all too often unable to keep up with
its constant evolution, leaving relevant instruction stranded on the beach, while new waves of technology are
constantly emerging. The Wavebreak program brings to the future and current IT workforce an introduction to
new technologies as they surface, allowing them to be more competitive in a rapidly evolving job market.
The Wavebreak program was created from a grant awarded to the college by the U.S. Department of Labor
in 2008. The total grant award, from the Community-based Jobs Training Grant series, was $1.74 million and
operated for a total of four years. During this time, 424 students from 96 Tulsa area companies were trained
in programs such as Mobile Application Development, Web Application Development, Cloud Computing and IT
Project Management. The education provided via Wavebreak resulted in college credit where applicable,
though its design has been focused on placing people in their desired career pathways, whether it is simply an
introduction to emerging and evolving technologies, acquiring a degree while retaining proficiency in the IT
workforce, or simply for self-improvement purposes.
Wavebreak’s mission has been: “To
create an Education Development
& Delivery Model that offers Relevant & Timely Training in Evolving IT Technologies to Incumbent
Workers, allowing them to Retain
Technical Proficiency while seeking a degree and Enabling its Repackaging for College & K-12 Students.”
With a completion rate of 76%, the Wavebreak program employed many initiatives to help guide students to
the success of following through with their commitment to education and professional growth. One of the methods used to help achieve a high retention rate has been through the use of a cohort model. As students move
through the program, this model helps to create a support structure. This friendly, yet challenging, environment
allows students to feed off the technical knowledge of the group, thus offering more in depth access to the
course content and the ability to explore new ideas for the use of these technologies.
Another factor in achieving a high retention rate has been due to reforming the advisement, enrollment, payment, and placement processes that are typical in higher education institutions. Instead of allowing students to
move through the college’s system with the general population, Wavebreak self-advised its students while handling the enrollment processes, fulfilling the payment obligations, and creating access points between the students and the employers looking for the skills taught by the program. This allowed the stud ent to simply focus
on learning the content in the classroom and not requiring them to navigate the processes within the institution.
Wavebreak has primarily focused its efforts on those who have had some work experience in an IT field, but
are in need of learning the latest technology to keep up and stay relevant in the job market. Seventy-seven
percent of the students who have completed the program were employed when they began the training and
87% of those said that the training was related to their employment. Because continual training is the key for
future success in such an ever-changing industry, the Wavebreak training model is committed to developing an
extensive catalog of evolving technology-specific content and innovative learning tools to help workers reinforce and sustain their expertise, allowing them to successfully compete in today’s economy.