SPRINGDALE -- Northwest Technical Institute opened the school year Aug. 1 with 1,378 students, said Jim Rollins, president of the school.
He spoke Thursday at the quarterly meeting of the school's Board of Directors. Rollins said that number of students will grow throughout the school year.
The school's goal is to have an impact on 3,000 students each year, he said.
Rollins explained many of the programs offered by the career and technical school don't follow the traditional pattern of postsecondary schools.
Diploma programs might take a year or two to finish, he said. Some students are looking for a high school equivalency diploma. Some attend night classes. Others are online. And many students attend Northwest Technical for a short time -- in two-week training programs focusing on specific skills, he said.
An employer can afford to send an employee to the school for a two-week program for training in a specialized area needed at his company, Rollins said. But that employer cannot lose an employee for a year or more for initial training.
"We want to continue to serve industry, so we really want to expand our offering of short-term classes," Rollins said.
The short-term training programs in ammonia and refrigeration technology, commercial driving and certified medication aides enrolled 73 students this fall.
Derek Gibson, a board member, asked what the school and individual programs would need to expand.
"The need for truck drivers is astronomical," he said. "What do we need to do to increase the number of students?"
Mike Dewberry, director of apprenticeships and a leader in opening the commercial driver's license program, said the department needs more money, more equipment and more instructors to increase capacity for students. For example, the school's program last year had one truck and two instructors. Putting an instructor and one or two students on a truck at a time greatly limits that program's capacity to teach more students, he said.
The truck driving program now has three instructors and two trucks, and five or six other pieces of equipment are coming, Dewberry reported. The program in the past year has prepared drivers for every level of commercial driving, including driving tankers and carrying hazardous materials, driving school buses and operating pasture equipment.
Dewberry reported 163 graduates of the commercial driving program are driving trucks across the state and region.
Melissa Greenslade, vice president of curriculum and instruction, said all of the school's programs need money, more space and more instructors. The school's diploma programs enrolled 216 students this fall and are just about at capacity.
The school offers nine diploma programs in health services, industrial and information systems.
"We are a small school, with a small campus," Rollins said. "And we are at capacity. We've got to stretch and grow."