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ODOT Partnership

Campus News | Friday, September 14, 2018

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is partnering with Columbus State Community College in a new certificate program for consultant construction project inspectors, the Construction Inspector Workforce Program (CIWP). Once the CIWP requirements are completed, it is proposed that the participant will have College Certifications and qualify for Project Inspector consultant roles with ODOT. Their college credits earned in the process will place them more than halfway toward an associate degree in Civil Engineering Technology.

Columbus State has taken courses already in place in the Civil Engineering Technology and Construction Management programs to develop the new Certifications. The Certification track is open to anyone. It includes 10 classes, for a total of 27 credit hours for the Transportation Construction Inspection Certificate I. An additional three classes with nine credit hours will earn students the Transportation Construction Inspection Certificate II. If the student would choose, those 36 credits could be applied toward a full two-year associate degree in Civil Engineering Technology which requires 65 credits.

“We saw a vital need for additional Inspectors,” says Jerry Wray, ODOT Director. “An aging transportation infrastructure, a competitive job market, and increasing retirements make it more challenging to find qualified Inspectors. Columbus State stepped up and developed a body of courses to prepare students for those advanced technical roles.”

“This is a great example of a win-win situation,” says Dr. David Harrison, Columbus State President. “We always want to be a community partner and assisting ODOT helps them continue to work on transportation infrastructure projects that build Ohio.”

The initial class of participants will enter the CIWP this fall. ODOT says it hopes the template created by the Columbus State partnership can be replicated with other community colleges around Ohio so other regions can take advantage of the CIWP program.

 

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