Odessa College’s continuing education programs are growing and expanding with a wide variety of opportunities.
Heather Patton, health career director at OC, said one of the popular programs is medical assisting, which has gone from one to three cohorts a year.
Medical assistants are the people you see first at a clinic, Patton said.
“They’re the ones who are going to check you in, take your copay, height, weight, vitals, and then they help schedule your prescriptions and your follow-up visits,” she said.
Sometimes they will ask what you are at the doctor’s office for and they’ll relay it to the doctor.
Patton said she is trying to offer more on-ramps for students to take advantage of the health programs and remove barriers by having classes that start at multiple times of year rather than just twice.
“… We usually always have classes that start in August and January. I’ve created on-ramps in October and in March now, so that people who maybe didn’t get in right at the August or the January mark can now get in at the October or the March mark. We’re also dividing it up between Odessa and our extension sites,” Patton said.
For example, they had a medical assisting class start in January in Monahans. This month, one will start in Andrews.
Depending on enrollment, some of the extension sites may offer classes on a hybrid basis. Eventually, they will have to attend skills labs in person, depending on the program.
Patton said there are skills labs at the extension sites.
In the summer, accelerated phlebotomy and CNA courses will be offered. Both are eight weeks long.
“We have a lot of demand for that and people know that we offer it during the summer, so they don’t have 16 weeks to take a class. They know that we’re doing an accelerated one and for eight weeks, they can get it done. We’re compressing it and condensing it down,” Patton said.
In phlebotomy, they can work in many areas of a hospital or a lab. It is recommended that students take a national certification exam because it makes them more marketable, she added.
Also because of strong demand, Patton said a pharmacy technician class started in March and classes in Andrews and Pecos will go through July 7.
Patton said pharmacy technicians learn how to read prescriptions; how to do dosage calculations for prescriptions; and the way to tell a generic from a brand name, among other skills.
“… We’re adding the trainee license to it now. They can get a job immediately when they start the program,” Patton added.
In Texas, they can hire you in a pharmacy and you learn on the job.
“You still have to apply with your trainee license there, but you have two years to take your PTCB, which is the pharmacy technician certification in Texas. This way, they’re going to be doing it concurrently so … instead of having a formal externship, they will have the ability to work on the job while they’re going to school,” Patton said.
She added that everyone needs pharmacists — CVS, Walgreen’s, United Supermarkets and hospitals.
Everyone other than the pharmacist is usually a pharmacy tech, she said. They can do everything except offer advice.
“… They can fill all the prescriptions and then the pharmacist’s job is they have to go back and do the verification. And then they’re the ones who do the counseling because they’re a doctor,” Patton said.
Patton also is starting a patient care tech program, which runs 16 weeks.
“That one is in direct response to our CNA (certified nurse assistant). The CNA program is targeted toward long-term care — nursing homes; hospice. Patient care tech is the hospital version of that and it has a few more skills that they wouldn’t get in CNA, so OB(obstetrics), pediatrics, different surgical floors. They’re going to have access to know how to do EKGs, blood draws, charting, different kinds of charting, so I’m really excited about that one.”
Patient care technicians have to take an exam to be nationally certified, so they can go anywhere in the U.S. They can work in hospitals and urgent care clinics, for example.
The popular massage internship appointments will be available June 13-July 21. One-hour sessions are $20. Call 432-335-6580 for availability.
Patton noted that there are scholarships and grants available.
“If they’re ready to start a new career, Odessa College is the place to be,” Patton said.
They can visit odessa.edu, or call 432-335-6580.
Louis Gonzales, associate dean of Continuing Education, said they have a five-week truck driving program.
This semester, they have launched a training program in early February in Pecos.
Gonzales said the City of Pecos put a couple of its employees in the program and they want to continue offering that.
They trained city employees in Andrews, as well. It ran for nine weeks, as opposed to five. But now Gonzales said they are trying to find adjunct instructors to teach there.
They were able to hire an adjunct in Pecos.
Gonzales said the federal government made a change Feb. 7. Now a student who goes to the Texas Department of Public Safety for a commercial driver’s license must have gone to a school that is listed on the federal register.
“So before, you may have been hired on at company X and they said we’ll train you; we have an in-house DOT driver-trainer that will train you. We’ll train you in our truck and when you’re ready we’ll take you up there in the truck and you could test. That was something you could do, but once … the federal law changed, they have to go to a school or a business that’s in the federal registry, so that means all of these small companies, or training in house, that’s gone away,” Gonzales said.
“We’ve had a lot of calls there. … Secondly, they want to come in and they want a hazmat training. … Now you have to go to a school for that, too. What (lead truck driving instructor) William Church has done is he’s built that hazmat into his program. …,” Gonzales said.
The hazmat training is a week long.
Gonzales said he thinks the change at the federal level was driven by safety.
He added that OC is looking at ways to expand trucking locally so they can offer night or maybe weekend classes, which could almost double their capacity in terms of students served.
Kristi Pruitt, Business and Industry sales coordinator, said they are partnering with BAM Consulting to offer an entrepreneurial certification program.
“… That program is going to start on March 28. It’s a 10-week program. It’s twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30 to 7:30. … They’ll have lab presentations and provide the discussions and the interactions. … Some of the topics are research the market, feasibility, analysis, business model, price modeling. … We’re excited about partnering with them and getting that out there,” Pruitt said.
She said she partners with another company in San Antonio called Practice Management Institute, also known as PMI.
The college and PMI have partnered with Ward Memorial Hospital, the hospital in Rankin, Workforce Board and they have been working through a Skills Development Fund COVID grant. The grant was given to the Workforce Board.
“It’s usually not given to county hospitals, but this particular (one) because it’s the COVID grant, it was actually allowed for the county hospitals. …,” Pruitt said.
“… It was really good to be able to help those communities,” she added.
Pruitt said they also work with businesses with 99 employees or less through the Skills for Small Businesses grant.
The grant can cover classes like budgeting, business leadership, corrosion management, Excel I and II, Excel Spanish, precision manufacturing, QuickBooks I and II, right of way, safety, welding, and more, the OC website said.
