At its meeting today (Tues.), the South Dakota Board of Technical Education has approved an expansion that will allow two more nursing programs to be offered at Capital University Center in Pierre.
Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown will offer its Practical Nursing and Registered Nursing programs starting in the fall of 2020.
The board also announced the state’s four technical institutes have an average retention rate of 78%– 16% higher than the national average for two-year colleges. The retention rate measures those students who enroll at an institution one fall and return to the same institution the following fall.
Mitchell Technical Institute has an 84% retention rate. Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown has an 83% retention rate. Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls has a 72% retention rate and Western Dakota Technical Institute in Rapid City has a 70% retention rate.
Executive Director of the Board of Technical Education Nick Wendell says retention is an effective way to measure the health of an institution because it shows students who enroll have had a positive enough experience they choose to return.
