January 20, 2004

Workforce Development Center receives second excellence award

The Cowley College Workforce Development Center at Strother Field was presented its second Kansas Award for Excellence during a banquet held in Wichita last fall.

The center, located at Strother Field Airport and Industrial Park, was among 34 Kansas businesses and organizations honored at the eighth annual KAE banquet. The Workforce Development Center received a 2003 Commitment to Excellence Award. It is the first of three levels of recognition under the statewide program. It received a Level I award in 2002.

Shannon Massey serves as director of the center. Dave Galliart is Cowley's executive director of business and industry.

The center, which opened in fall 2000, offers various services to assist the area labor force. Those include career planning, exploring the job market, job application techniques, resume writing, interview skills, networking, and how to make the right first impression.

KAE's Commitment to Excellence Award is presented to organizations that demonstrate a serious commitment to the use of quality principles. The award recognizes organizations that are in the early stages of applying the principles of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

The KAE program annually recognizes companies from across the state that have used the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance. For more than 15 years, thousands of U.S. organizations have used the Baldrige Criteria to increase efficiency and improve the quality of their products and services.

The award program is managed by the Kansas Award for Excellence Foundation, a non-profit organization located in Topeka. The Foundation is the Kansas Affiliate of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program, a division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Cowley County Community College received the Kansas Excellence Award, the highest level of recognition by KAE, in 1999. It received Level II awards in 1997 and 1998.