AURORA | The 42 students who receive their associate degrees from Ecotech Institute later this month will have plenty of people tracking their progress after they walk across the stage.
It won’t just be proud family members and friends who will follow the professional paths of Ecotech’s first graduating class. The attention will go further than former Gov. Bill Ritter, who will deliver the commencement speech at the ceremony in Denver on June 21. Ecotech administrators and instructors, as well as officials from the school’s parent company, the Alabama-based Education Corporation of America, will keep a careful eye on the grads.
The future of the trade school that’s focused entirely on renewable energy, sustainable design and “green” technology depends on their success; Ecotech’s accreditation is tied to the professional future of the first class.
“The first thing we measure is how many of them have jobs in their field within 90 days of graduating. We want to ensure that as many (who) want jobs can have them,” said Glenn Wilson, Ecotech’s academic dean, adding that the data holds a sway with the Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools. “We’re audited. When they did our last audit, we had no violations. Our next one is 2013.”
Since Ecotech held its first classes in a temporary facility off East Iliff Avenue in late 2009 and later opened its 620,000-square-foot campus on South Abilene Street near East Mississippi Avenue and Interstate 225 in 2010, the school has drawn national media attention for its specialized, “green” focus. With the support of a national advertising campaign, the number of students at the school has grown steadily in the past two years, ballooning from an initial class of less than 100 to a current enrollment of about 500. Specifically, the school grew by about 400 percent in a single year.
That growth has come along with a similar expansion in equipment and faculty. The school opened with a faculty of one program director and two instructors; now the school’s ranks comprise three program directors and 24 instructors. In 2011, the building itself earned its LEED certification.
“One big change is that we’re around 500 students now. The size of the school has grown. We have all our labs built out. When we opened, we didn’t have all of our classes in place,” Wilson said, pointing to the addition late last year of new equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The new training tools included a Lab-Volt Wind Turbine Nacelle Trainer, a Lab-Volt Wind Turbine Hub Trainer and software programs designed to simulate the operation of a real wind-farm. “We are constantly talking to our local advisory boards. We’ve made adjustments and changes. We’ve added equipment, we’ve added better textbooks.”
But since Ecotech is a for-profit school, the real test of its durability lies in the economic success of its grads. Like other schools run by the ECA (including the Virginia College, Culinard: The Culinary Institute of Virginia and the Golf Academy of America), Ecotech’s credentials depend on results, a fact that hasn’t escaped administrators and owners.
“With our first group of graduates in June, we can’t wait to see where they go,” EcoTech President Mike Seifert said in a statement earlier this year. “This is definitely going to be a big year for us.”
So far, Ecotech officials aren’t concerned about the fate of the school’s first crop of graduates. According to administrators, the school has pumped plenty of resources into its Career Services Department, establishing early contacts with solar, wind and other renewable energy companies in Colorado and beyond.
“Well over half are placed already, which is really exciting for us. Already, quite a few of them have good jobs,” Wilson said. “This first class has been very enthusiastic and very interested in the whole energy field.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707