Community Relations / Outreach

An integral and growing part of the College’s outreach mission are those activities termed “professional and continuing education” and “community enrichment,” specifically, learning opportunities providing workforce preparation, employee training or re-training, business support, and life-long learning. These educational activities are offered through the Outreach Department, part of the Community Relations Division, and may be organized under varying instructional formats—workshops, seminars, conferences, institutes, symposia, colloquia, short courses, etc.; however, they are aligned in their focus on imparting information to community members, employers, employees, and other groups in a high-quality, results-oriented manner. These activities are a major component of the workforce development mission extending the College’s resources throughout the community.

The Outreach Department offers credit and non-credit bearing courses. A variety of non-credit courses and certification programs numbered (094) are offered on and off campus as well as online. Credit-bearing courses numbered (194) serve as general electives for Associate of Arts or Science degrees at the college and provide excellent professional development opportunities for teachers requiring recertification with the state.


094 COURSES
Courses assigned a 094 number are non-credit professional and continuing education or community enrichment courses.  The non-credit PCE courses are typically offered to meet the needs of professionals in need of skills upgrades and other professional certification needs (e.g. OPI Renewal Units for Montana K-12 Teacher Certification). These courses are transcribed as Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) on the student continuing education transcript and are eligible for Montana OPI Renewal Units. PCE includes the non-credit online courses and certification programs offered through Ed2go and Gatlin. The new community enrichment courses, formerly Nitecap through Great Falls Public Schools, offer affordable, fast, fun and stress-free lifelong learning opportunities for the greater Great Falls area.

194 COURSES
Courses assigned a course number of 194 are considered credit-bearing professional and continuing education courses providing participants with the latest in technology, business, health and human development and other topics meeting current educational trends and demands. They are typically offered to provide condensed coursework to meet the needs of working students, to fulfill some of the requirements of Certificates, offer a diversity of electives for Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree seeking students, and fill certain professional certification needs (e.g. Montana K-12 Teacher Certification). These courses may be eligible for financial aid for students using them as electives in degree and certificate programs where authorized. Students should consult their advisors to identify whether 194 courses will apply toward their program requirements. 194 courses are transcribed on the student’s undergraduate transcript.
Semester schedules with both 094 and 194 courses covering a variety of training topics are mailed to those interested. Please call the college at 406-771-4300 or 1-800-446-2698 to request that your name be added to the mailing list or join our mailing list by logging on to http://outreach.msugf.edu.  
OUTCOMES: PROFESSIONAL AND CONTINUING EDUCATION

• To provide personal enrichment and lifelong learning opportunities to both our campus population as well as to individuals from the community;
• To provide business support, training and/or retraining to meet workforce needs;
• To provide diverse options for students that will allow them to fulfill the demands of their academic programs and/or financial aid requirements.

CONTINUING EDUCATION UNITS (CEU’S)
All non-credit courses offered through the Outreach Department are transcripted as Continuing Education Units (CEU’s). These are awarded to the student upon successful completion of the course and are recorded on the student’s continuing education transcript. CEU’s are awarded based on national accreditation guidelines of 1 CEU = 10 contact hours.  In addition to CEU’s, these courses are also eligible for Office of Public Instruction (OPI) Renewal Units.  These are awarded on a 1 Renewal Unit = 1 Contact hour formula and must be requested by the student.


CONTRACT TRAINING
MSU – Great Falls’ Outreach helps meet the needs of workforce training in the greater Great Falls area in the form of customized training assistance to businesses and individuals, including those located in rural communities, to maximize their ability to make a profit. By developing customized training programs matched to individual and business needs, instructors and people are brought together to exchange knowledge and provide specialized, effective training for all areas of business including computer, supervision and management, customer service and more.

Contract training provides the highest quality customized training options for area businesses and individuals. We invite you to join other local companies and programs that have taken advantage of this great service including-Great Falls Clinic, Pacific Power and Light Montana, Veterans Upward Bound and  Montana Air National Guard Family Program, to name a few who have taken advantage of this powerful training resource.

Call Linda McNeill for more information, 406-454-3217