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WVNCC Offers New Programs at its New Martinsville Campus
Posted 07/14/22
West Virginia Northern Community College (WVNCC) announced an expanded list of programs for its New Martinsville Campus in time for the Fall Semester, which begins on August 29, 2022. New programs include one-year certificate or a two-year associate degree, plus new short-term workforce programs that can be completed in as little as three weeks.
Degree programs that are being offered include Energy Technology, Elementary Education, and Substance Abuse Technician. Short term workforce programs being offered for the first time in New Martinsville including Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), EKG Technician, Phlebotomy Technician, Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) and AWS-Certified Welder.
“We have taken a strategic approach to adding programs on our New Martinsville Campus. New programs were identified through labor market research and feedback from our industry advisory groups, made up of industry representatives, citizens and community leaders in the region,” commented WVNCC President, Daniel Mosser. “We are offering a broader mix of programs tailor-fit to our service area based on local business and workforce needs. Our focus in New Martinsville is on Health Care, Education, and Industrial & Applied Technology industries. There is something for everyone including online, hybrid and onsite courses designed for traditional college students and working adults alike. Northern’s programs are affordable and designed to get students on career pathways that lead to rewarding living-wage careers.”
The new Energy Technology program is an expansion of the former Petroleum Technology program that Northern has offered for the past several years. The expanded program includes renewable energy sources such as solar, hydropower, wind, geothermal and more. The Substance Abuse Technician has been successfully offered on the Wheeling campus and will now be offered in New Martinsville. Both are one-year credit certificate programs with an upgrade option to a two-year degree. With the exception of Welding, the non-credit, short-term workforce training programs focus on careers in the healthcare industry. These short-term workforce programs prepare students for immediate employment, or credits can be leveraged in other programs like Patient Care Technician or Nursing.
This announcement comes on the heels of the announcement made in March that Northern was awarded $1 million through West Virginia Governor Jim Justice’s Nursing Workforce Expansion Program. This funding addresses the state’s nursing shortage through a multifaceted approach to recruit, train, and retain nurses in the Mountain State. A fundamental part of this grant is to invest in nursing program expansion projects at colleges, universities, schools of nursing, and career technical education centers across West Virginia.
Northern is using these grant funds to upgrade its nurse training facilities on all three campuses, including New Martinsville. Our new nursing labs will include individual patient rooms, control rooms, observation rooms and the latest software for nursing education. The grant includes funding for lab equipment like mannequins, hospital beds, room supplies and faculty professional development. Northern will offer a new Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) certificate program in New Martinsville in this brand-new lab by the Fall 2023 semester. They are also working to revive the Registered Nursing (RN) degree program in New Martinsville.
“We are very excited for all the positive momentum that is building on the New Martinsville Campus,” added WVNCC Manager of Campus Operations in New Martinsville, Debbie Bennett. “These new programs will change the lives of our students and provide them and their families great career opportunities.”
