"Classic" vs "New"

Something that we talk about a lot at NWETC is, how do we keep our course offerings “fresh”? Our reputation was built by topics such as Fundamentals of Contaminant Chemistry, Microsoft Access and Excel for Environmental Professionals, Electrofishing, and ArcGIS for Environmental Applications. All of these courses are still popular because we’ve updated them to include current developments, and we offer them to new audiences in locations nationwide. But though people continue to attend our original offerings, and our reach has expanded beyond the “Northwest” in our name, we still need to do more to raise the freshness factor.

So what are we doing? Well, we try things. We are always on the lookout for new topics of interest to the Environmental community. When we find something that seems to have legs, and an instructor whose credentials and experience match our standards, we develop it and post it to our schedule. We’re not too proud to admit that not everything is an instant winner. Some topics take a while to reach the audience who can best benefit from them. And some are just…well, their time hasn’t come yet. That’s ok, posting new offerings, seeing how they’re received, and getting feedback from you is part of the process.

In 2013, we added a few new topics that worked, and they will continue to be part of our repertoire in 2014. Some standouts are Visualizing and Analyzing Environmental Data with R, and Planning and Preparing an Ecological Risk Assessment. Both of these were well received immediately, and we’re excited to bring them to more places next year.

So what are our NEW Courses?

But that’s not enough…we’ve added MORE relevant, immediately useful courses to our 2014 schedule. These are some BRAND NEW subjects that have never been offered before, and we can’t wait to see what you think of them. Go take a look at the descriptions for Advanced NEPA, Wetlands Delineation, and Natural Resource Damage Assessment Workshop. Personally, I think they all sound like winners! The topics are timely, they’re relevant to Environmental Professionals in many different areas of expertise, and the instructors are leaders in their fields.

Seriously, go look at the descriptions! And we’d love to hear from you-tell us what you think of these new courses, give us suggestions for more new ones, and/or tell us what your favorite “classic” NWETC offerings are. You can leave a comment here, or email us at info@nwetc.org. Your feedback allows us to serve you better, so we’d appreciate it if you’d share any thoughts you have.

Thank you, and have a Happy New Year!