5.6 SUMMARY: QUESTION TWO RECRUITMENT AND
This question focused on the WFD leader’s understanding of how WFD faculty are recruited and selected for employment within the division. The interviewees indicated that there are three ways in which WFD faculty are recruited:
• Self-identification
• Word of mouth
• Advertising through newspapers, college course catalogs and tabloids, i.e. “if you have a skill or practice that you believe would benefit the community, please contact our office if you would like to offer this as a class.”
The community college actively recruits potential WFD faculty through a variety of methods. This is typically required when a company in the area is looking for the most advanced instruction on a topic, or a company is growing so large that the current WFD faculty workforce is unable to keep up with the field. This is happening in the Marcellus shale related industries in the Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia regions. The natural gas operations within Pennsylvania are growing so rapidly that the colleges are scrambling for credentialed instructors and trainers. In this region, there is no legacy of training in the field. Cost is another element causing concerns for community colleges regarding recruiting natural gas related faculty. These faculty are expensive and low in number. There is no legacy of natural gas education and training in PA to address the current amount of need and there are limited numbers of retired gas workers available to pull from to teach the workforce. Currently, there is a major thrust within the community college system to identify and recruit natural gas related subject matter experts for WFD instruction. This is but one of the difficulties WFD faces when trying to keep pace with the growth of the workforce and the need for highly trained individuals in the field.