April 24, 2024 by St. Petersburg College
St. Peterburg College is introducing five new programs this fall to meet growing workforce demand and give graduates an edge in the marketplace in the areas of health, education, technology, and business. Resilient Vinyl Plank Flooring
Cardiopulmonary Science Bachelor of Science Degree
SPC will launch a B.S. degree in Cardiopulmonary Science to address the increasing demand for registered respiratory therapists with advanced training and skills. Specifically designed for practicing RRTs to help them move up the career ladder in respiratory care, the program will become a stand-alone credential that replaces the respiratory care subplan in the bachelor’s degree in health services administration.
The new degree is only offered online. It is available in eight-week courses, allowing students to focus on one or two courses at a time.
The broad-based curriculum will lead to advanced credentials, professional growth and development in leadership, management, education and research. Increasingly, hospitals prefer to hire practitioners with baccalaureate degrees for bedside clinical positions.
Courses include patient education and advanced capstone experiences tailored to practicing registered respiratory therapists’ needs and requires no clinical or campus time. The capstone experience can be completed locally wherever students reside.
Secondary English Education with Reading and ESOL Endorsement Bachelor of Science Degree
SPC continues to beef up its College of Education offerings with the launch of the Bachelor of Science in Secondary English Education with Reading and ESOL Endorsement.
“This degree will help fill the need for teachers in one of the most critical shortage areas in Florida,” said Heather Duncan, Associate Dean of the College of Education. “With other universities closing their programs, there will be a significant need for teacher training at the local level in our area.”
The Reading and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) endorsements will make graduates more marketable and well prepared for their careers as middle or high school teachers, Duncan added. Another critical teacher shortage area in the state includes ESE (Exceptional Student Education), which the College also offers a bachelor’s degree in.
Critical teacher shortage areas are defined as those certification areas where substantial proportions of teachers who are not certified in the appropriate field are being hired to teach such courses, where significant vacancies exist and where postsecondary institutions do not produce enough graduates to meet the needs of Florida’s K-12 student population.
This program joins two others that were created this past spring to meet growing workforce demand: the Prekindergarten/Primary Education (age 3 through Grade 3) Bachelor of Science degree and the Training and Development Advanced Technical Certificate.
The credentials will meet workforce demand for preschool teachers and training and development specialists, respectively.
Cloud Computing A.S. Degree
SPC will become the first institution in the Florida College System to develop an Associate in Science degree in Cloud Computing. The program’s curriculum, established with input from other state colleges, will serve as the jumping off point for all 28 state colleges that plan to offer similar degrees at their institutions.
The degree will prepare graduates to manage information technology services like servers, storage, databases, and software that are offered over the internet, or “the cloud”.
“It’s an honor that the State Department of Education chose us to create this program as the bedrock for all the other state colleges,” said Norene Kemp, Dean of the College of Computer Information and Technology. “The colleges can customize their programs as they see fit based on the foundation we have laid.”
To develop the A.S. framework, the College relied on a $400,000 Cyber Florida grant that included funding for expanding IT pathways. The new degree builds on the Cloud Computing Certificate launched in Fall 2022 to meet the escalating need for highly skilled cloud practitioners like software and security engineers, system and network administrators, full-stack and Java developers, and cloud and software architects.
“The trend in cloud computing is one of the fastest growing sectors in IT, including web development, networking and software applications,” Kemp said. “Cloud computing has emerged as a key factor in software development. Now, software developers and system administrators are working together as they design, build, and deploy their applications.”
All core courses in the program will be offered online and students will work in a virtual environment so they can practice their skills in real time. Graduates will be proficient in the leading cloud services, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and Google. Students can take their general education credits on SPC campuses if they choose.
Two new certificates in the College of Business will add to a growing body of business credentials aimed at giving graduates an edge in the global economy. The bachelor’s level Corporate Entrepreneurship Advanced Technical Certificate teaches students how to innovate, adapt, and initiate change within established organizations, turning them into “intrapreneurs,” who can drive growth and development from within.
The Green Innovations and Social Entrepreneurship Certificate leans heavily into social enterprises and got its start during a summer sustainability program funded by a $25,000 VentureWell grant, awarded to colleges to expand and strengthen STEM innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems.
“One of our goals is to support lifestyle entrepreneurs,” said College of Business Dean Emmanuel Hernandez-Agosto. “Most entrepreneurial programs focus on high-wage or growth areas like tech, but few focus on and take pride in helping these entrepreneurs.”
The programs join recent additions in the College of Business including the Business Analyst Specialist Advanced Technical Certificate launched last fall. The certificate, that builds on associate degrees, is particularly suited for technology students who want to transfer to business roles and for business students who want to expand their technical and data skills.
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