I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me in the past year saying, “What exactly is technical assistance?” Initially, I thought, “Well, we’re home to two federally funded technical assistance centers. Technical assistance is just...what we do!” But the reality is, it’s not really that obvious to everyone, despite the fact that we at Think College might assume that everyone knows what it means.
Let’s start with the first word: technical. Sounds like we could be referring to your technology. One definition of the word “technical” is: of, involving, or concerned with applied and industrial sciences. Another is “relating to a particular subject, art, or craft, or its techniques.” This definition is a little closer to what we do but may still be confusing.
Then, let’s talk about the word assistance. Seems helpful. But what kind of assistance? Virtual? Email? Phone? For one time only? Only for big emergencies? Technical assistance. It may be a difficult term to understand, yet it is the crux of what we do here at Think College.
So, when we say technical assistance, we mean any activity where our staff is working to develop and strengthen the knowledge and skills necessary to understand inclusive postsecondary education. That might include meeting with a parent and prospective student to review the College Search directory, or with a new program once a month to help figure out their admissions process. It is answering lots of questions via our Help Desk on all aspects of operating a program, finding the right program, preparing for college, and more.
Providing support and information via technical assistance is a core aspect of our work, and we offer it at different levels. Universal technical assistance is when we get a question (usually via email) where we provide a link to an existing resource in our Resource Library. General technical assistance is providing a response or meeting (virtually) with a customer to elaborate upon a concept or idea related to the field. Targeted technical assistance is more intensive, usually around three or more hours of our time, working with a customer towards a specific goal. A common example is supporting a program in completing their Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary, or CTP, program application. We will meet with a program once to review common CTP program considerations, complete a review of their application, and provide feedback via email or an additional meeting. Another example is program development, meeting with an emerging program to explain the resources and support that we provide and reviewing what is available on our website, meeting with their administrators or planning team, and continuing to meet with them a few more times to develop their plan for program development.
A recent development is the option for customized technical assistance. For those requiring specific training and support or facilitated strategic planning, we can provide customized technical assistance for a fee. This type of support falls outside the scope of our federally funded activities and can be a good option for those looking for more intensive and unique support than grant-funded services are able to provide.
Most of the technical assistance we provide is covered within the scope of our funded projects; the way we’ve been delivering support for close to fifteen years now is not changing. Thousands have received and will continue to receive high-quality, FREE technical assistance from our staff. We are happy to offer a new fee-based option for those that may need intensive and/or customized support from tried-and-true experts in the field of inclusive postsecondary education.
We provide all of this support, in addition to other activities that build awareness and knowledge of inclusive postsecondary education: presentations and exhibits at conferences, creating and sharing resources, and publishing or supporting research in the field.
I like to joke with our team that everyone is part of the technical assistance team, but it’s true. We are home to two national technical assistance centers, after all! Because the term may be difficult to understand, I hope this provides some insight into what Think College technical assistance is all about.
Be right back, let me tally how many times I used the term “technical assistance” in this blog post. In case you were wondering, it’s 19!