There are several opportunities to earn college credit at Manhattan High School and more options will be added to the course description book for the 2015-2016 school year.

During the enrollment process at the beginning of the semester, students were told about the switch from using Kansas State University to earn dual credits to using Manhattan Area Technical College. The switch is making it easier to afford taking college classes at MHS and also provides more class options like Public Speaking and Introduction to Sociology.

There are a few classes that are being added soon including Ag Welding 1, 2 and 3 as well as Welding Safety/OSHA 10, Cutting Processes, Welding Metallurgy, Arc Welding, Mig Welding and Computer Drafting.

“We haven’t completely updated the course description book because we just met with MATC last week on a few additions so as soon as we have all of the information we will update the electronic version that’s on the website and send that out,” Career and College Readiness Counselor Katie Ball said. “I’ll send out messages to all students and parents with the updated information to make sure that everybody knows what courses will be taught next year, which ones will be offered through MATC and all the changes that’ll be made.”

Some classes offered by MATC come with certifications that can be used in the workforce after passing the course.

“They’ll get an OSHA credit on it and that’s two credits and then three more credits for welding and cutting processes so it’ll be a five credit class that they get for free at MATC,” welding instructor Doug Muller said.

The computer drafter classes do not provide a certification, but students will have other benefits like earning four credits from MATC after passing the course.

“There should be two fold advantages,” Computer Drafting teacher Monty Enright said. “Number one is they can get credit from MATC and number two is that now becomes a course that they can transfer to other universities too that they can tie in with a drafting program or engineering program.”

The final decisions will be made sometime this week and should be announced before spring break. If students would like to switch into any of the new classes, they will need to talk to their academic counselor.