Mollee Francisco of the Chaska Herald reports:

CHASKA -- With its toes already wet, Dunwoody College of Technology now appears ready to take a deeper plunge into higher educational offerings for the southwest metro. Beginning this spring, it will start offering degree and certificate programs in Chaska.

In 2006, Dunwoody forged a partnership with the Carver-Scott Educational Cooperative (CSEC) to offer a land surveying class for high school students. Last January, that partnership expanded to college-level classes at CSEC's Valley Green location in Shakopee. Now Dunwoody is ready to enlarge the program again, with the creation of the Dunwoody College of Technology-Southwest Metro Campus.

"The new initiative is in keeping with our mission to provide outstanding technical education to the Twin Cities area," said President C. Ben Wright, in a press release. "We are confident that this partnership with CSEC will allow us to offer the full Dunwoody experience beyond the borders of our traditional campus."

The new offerings will include a bachelor's degree in applied management and an associate's degree in computer networking, as well as certificate programs for civil engineering technician, computer networking, facility service management and manufacturing SolidWorks.

Dunwoody Marketing Director Dave Jarzyna said that the academic team looked at all of their options when trying to choose new programs for the Southwest Metro campus.

"We wanted the ones that were the easiest to transport and the ones that would have the fastest and most immediate impact," he said.

New classes will start in March with the possibility for additional programs in basic construction management and information modeling technology being added if there is enough demand.

Dunwoody believes that the demand is there already for their classes and will only grow as the southwest metro population increases.

"There is a huge opportunity out there," said Jarzyna. "It's a growing market with a lot of employers."

"Current projections are that the metro area will continue to grow at a brisk pace," said Rich Wagner, vice president of academic affairs for Dunwoody. "Such growth will also lead to an increasing need for well-trained, technical workers. As we looked at the changes taking place in the area, we decided that now is a good time to launch a Southwest Metro campus."

For now, Dunwoody is only expanding its classes in Chaska. All of the new courses will be offered at the CSEC's main campus in downtown Chaska.

Jarzyna said that there is definitely opportunity for more growth in the southwest metro though. He added that a permanent Dunwoody facility isn't out of the question.

"We don't know where this is going to take us," he said. "But we aren't saying no.

"We want to make sure we do this right and take our time."

Mollee Francisco is a staff writer for the Chaska Herald. She can be reached at mfrancisco@swpub.com.