Award – $1,305,441 (FY 2002-FY 2004)
Funding Source – New Jersey Commission on Higher Education
Project Director Brad Beeler
Activities
Full Narrative Proposal
Proposal Abstract
Bergen Community College, along with consortium partners County College of Morris and Sussex County Community College, was awarded a $1.3 million High Technology Workforce Excellence grant for its Veterinary Technology Program. The Northern New Jersey Consortium for Veterinary Technician Education offers an Associate in Applied Science Degree through Bergen Community College, County College of Morris, and Sussex County Community College. Unique in the nation, the VTE program is accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities. The program has a 100% job placement rate and maintains a waiting list of major employers throughout New Jersey who are seeking its graduates. Consortium members Bergen, Morris, and Sussex are individually and collectively committed to make this already successful high technology program extraordinary.
By creating cutting-edge learning opportunities for high technology veterinary technician training and development, the Consortium will better meet employment needs of three New Jersey high technology industries experiencing exponential growth. The Consortium will work with biomedical research, pharmaceutical research, and veterinary health care partners to achieve the following goals:
- Upgrade the veterinary technician curriculum to include with the student skills base new high technology competencies in transgenics and micro injection.
- Establish the High Tech Veterinary Surgical Center at Bergen Community College to include state-of-the-art operating room, surgical assistance/veterinary nursing center, and diagnostic imaging laboratory.
- Upgrade the Veterinary Technician Laboratory Animal and Clinical Research Laboratory at County College of Morris to include transgenics and micro injection with biomedical research, research animal technology, and cutting-edge clinical practice equipment and instrumentation.
- Create the Sussex County Community College Vertebrate Animal Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory and veterinary student practice/independent study laboratories.
- Increase the number of program graduates to meet rapidly growing needs for skilled high technology veterinary technicians in the biomedical research, pharmaceutical research, and veterinary health care industries.
- Enhance quality assurance measures that meet or exceed standards of the New Jersey Association of Biomedical Researchers and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).