Certification Information

Positions Requiring Certification/Certifiability

Part-time instructors who teach credit courses need to be certified by the Wisconsin Technical College System. Madison Area Technical College will request this certification and pay the required fee; however, instructors will need to furnish official transcripts (DOC, 55KB) and verification of occupational experience (DOC, 69KB) to the Human Resources office. Part-time instructors who teach adult and continuing education courses must meet certification requirements, but do not need to be formally certified.

Requirements for Teaching in the Wisconsin Technical College System

Academic instructors must have a bachelor’s degree with a major (or 30 credits) in the subject area and 2,000 hours of non-educational work experience. Vocational instructors must have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent occupational experience and 4,000 hours of work experience in the appropriate field.

Part-time Credit Instructors

Instructors of credit courses can be certified at either the part-time provisional level or the part-time approval level.  Part-time Provisional Certification applies to all academic instructors, vocational instructors who wish to be certified for an entire area (i.e., accounting, auto body, etc.), and instructors who teach three or more courses. Part-time Approval Certification applies to all vocational instructors who teach less than three courses (teaching several sections of the same course counts as one course). The initial period for both types of certification is three years. Thereafter, certification renews every two years.

Renewal Requirements

Part-time Provisional teachers must work toward completion of education requirements #50-69. This must be done at the rate of two (2) credits each renewal period. Once these requirements are fulfilled, teachers are eligible for the standard Five-Year certification. These requirements are completed through a formal course or an approved Madison Area Technical College inservice activity.

Education Requirements

(Each requirement must be taken for a minimum of two credits)

• 50 – Curriculum or Course Construction
• 51 – Philosophy of VTAE
• 52 – Teaching Methods
• 53 – Educational Psychology
• 54 – Educational Evaluation
• 55 – Guidance and Counseling
• 69 – Educational Diversity

If you have any questions regarding certification, contact jabentley[at] matcmadison [dot] edu (Jennifer Bentley) at (608) 246-6905 or ljanderson2[at] matcmadison [dot] edu (Laurel Anderson) at (608) 246-6907.