GEAPS Education and Training Opens New Doors for Collaboration
GEAPS Education and Training Opens New Doors for Collaboration
MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 22 – The Grain Elevator and Processing Society (GEAPS) is revitalizing and expanding the educational offerings it provides to grain handling and processing workers. The association is targeting new partnerships that focus on bringing more value to members of the organization.
Jeff Jones, MKC, GEAPS International president, is thrilled by the progress so far, including the organization’s recent partnership with the American Feed Industry Association and upcoming collaborations with new universities, subject matter experts and specialty companies that serve the industry.
“Education and professional development are an important part of what GEAPS does,” Jones said. “This has been a challenging year for our organization, and our Board has taken a long look at all of our programs and services to evaluate the value they provide to members and the industry. We determined that we needed to identify new partners and collaborators, to offer the best training in the most effective formats. We are committed to finding the best partners in the industry, in government and academia to accomplish that goal.”
As part of the new educational structure, GEAPS will continue to offer the Distance Education Program courses previously offered in conjunction with Kansas State University. The organizations will dissolve their existing relationship beginning on Jan. 1, 2021. GEAPS Executive Director Steve Records reflected on the highlights of the partnership.
“We had a lot of success working with Kansas State University,” Records said. “Our joint distance education training program won multiple awards for excellence, but the program saw an unacceptable decline in participation in recent years. Kansas State University was a great partner, but the needs of our members and the industry overall have changed over the past 13 years and GEAPS must change accordingly.”
Records said GEAPS is focused on updating their program to be more focused on user experience by being fully on-demand in the future and responsive to members’ needs by adhering less to a rigid higher academia approach.
“Not only will we be engaging more people and organizations to provide content and education,” Records said, “We will do so in a more affordable manner to better serve our members and provide more value to our member companies.”
Courses are available through GEAPS starting with four courses in January. In the coming months, the entire catalog will be online with courses available anytime on demand. To learn more and register for courses, visit www.geaps.com/online-learning.
In addition to distance education program courses, GEAPS recently announced a full suite of professional business training courses. The association is also working on a flexible custom training program that delivers one to three days of training tailored to individual facilities. Learn more about GEAPS training programs.
About GEAPS
The Grain Elevator and Processing Society (GEAPS) is an international professional association of grain handling and processing professionals. GEAPS addresses the industry’s critical grain handling, storage and processing operations needs by providing networking, professional development programs and access to a global marketplace of industry suppliers. GEAPS’ global network includes more than 2,500 individual members from about 1,050 companies. Join our network today!
