LEWISTON, Idaho – Lewis-Clark State College continues to evolve degree and certificate programming to meet contemporary demand including the addition of certificates in high-demand areas of cybersecurity, web design and social media, and a new emphasis in healthcare management, college officials have announced.
Many of the new degrees and certificates are a part of President Cynthia Pemberton’s “Signature Certificates” program, an initiative meant to blend content and hands-on learning, knitting together academic and Career & Technical Education courses.
The LC State Business, Business Technology & Service, and Nursing & Health Sciences Divisions combined existing courses to create new offerings, including an emphasis in healthcare management within the Business Administration degree. The degree, offered fully online, is designed to prepare graduates for mid-level management positions within the healthcare industry and also includes courses in medical insurance billing and healthcare policy.
The Business Division also reconfigured its general business degree to concentrate on business management and its business administration with an accounting emphasis degree to focus on accounting. Both degrees are available fully online. Other changes in the Business Division include a new entrepreneurship certificate, a part of the Signature Certificates program, and Bachelor of Applied Science degrees in business and interdisciplinary studies.
BTS and the Humanities Division will share a web design and social media certificate offering. According to Martin Gibbs, interim dean of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the certificate was created when LC State President Cynthia Pemberton asked divisions to look at ways of weaving together CTE and academic coursework to create unique and marketable signature certificates. The nine-credit certificate will introduce students to the ever-evolving fields of web design, social media, and web-based writing. Students will learn the foundations of web page creation, programming, and management. They will also learn how to create content for websites, blogging, social media, and other applications. According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Labor statistics, web design and development is expected to have a growth rate of 13 percent over the next decade.
The BTS Division will offer an intermediate technical certificate in packaging design and Michelle Nelson, chair of the BTS Division, said the new certificate will further expand student skills and allow them to become more specialized and marketable. She said as the demand for packaging designers and workers increases, industry partners and students continue to ask for more coursework in this area.
BTS will also offer a basic technical certificate in early childhood development. The 10-credit certificate meets the requirements of students working toward a Child Development Associate credential through the Council for Professional Recognition, a national credentialing program.
LC State’s Technical & Industrial Division will begin to offer a signature certificate in cybersecurity. Mark Smith, chair of the T&I Division, said the introductory certificate can be earned in a semester and coursework includes an introduction to basic computer security and to laws that are applied in business and human relations.
The college also has added two middle school minors for teachers who want to specialize in teaching science or social studies. The middle school science minor is a shared degree with the Teacher Education and Natural Science & Mathematics Divisions, while the middle school social studies minor is shared by the Teacher Education and Social Sciences Divisions. In addition, LC State added an intermediate technical certificate in Information Technology and a mastery-based option in Teacher Education.
The 2020 fall application deadline is Aug. 8.