Montana Perkins
Program Advisory Boards
Role of Advisory Boards
Advisory committees are a quality control function of your program and are a tool for administration and faculty to
“talk to the customer”
 Provide specifications for your program
 Ensure the quality of your graduates
 Define the exit points
Administration & Faculty
 Share information
 Learn from Business & Industry
 Respond to Recommendations
Joint Advisory Committees
• Separate advisory committees support the individual programs at each institution
• Joint advisory committees support the pathway that overlays two or more institutions.
Rural Areas
• Rural areas often lack employers that can provide committee members
• Small businesses provide the majority of all jobs in the U.S. – In many communities, small businesses are
the only employers
• Small businesses can offer certain advantages, such as personalized attention and more varied
experiences for students and/or instructors at the worksite.
• Work through local chamber. Be sure to give small businesses plenty of recognition as many of
them have lived in the community for years.
• Committees can look for ways to expand & enhance involvement of small businesses by having
them leverage their connections with
• Subcontractors
• Suppliers
• Other business contacts.
• Do your best to represent your local/regional B&I on Advisory Boards
One of the best rewards for advisory committees is to ask for advice and then to respond to it.
Montana Perkins
Program Advisory Boards
Reviving Existing Committees
 Give them a task to help you with your program
 Have AC give you a data-driven report on how our graduates are doing as employees.
 Give AC a data-driven report on how YOUR students are doing in Math.
 What % of recent HS graduates does your program capture? GPA? Remediation rate?
Retention?
 Take a look at your current structure. Could it be improved?
Education to B/I
Academic & Technical Teams
9-14 Counselors/Advisors
Staff Development LED by B/I
Math applications in CTE
Real world applications for academic instructors
Open industry-based training to instructors
Advice for Starting Over
• Business must provide leadership
• Relationships need to be built at ALL levels
• Think in SYSTEM terms
– Academic & technical skills
– Secondary & Postsecondary
– Connect to existing entities (Chamber, EDC)
• Educate your community (gold-collar worker)
• Always focus on your mission (economic dev)