ATLANTA — The State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia has selected Lanier Technical College in Oakwood as this year’s recipient of their Perdue Award for the TCSG Technical College of the Year.
TCSG State Board Chairman Joe Yarbrough made the announcement during the board’s monthly meeting Dec. 4 in Atlanta. The three other finalists for the award were Savannah Technical College, Albany Technical College and Moultrie Technical College.
Each December, the board chooses the award winner from among the system’s 23 technical colleges. The top college is named after a review of almost two-dozen performance categories covering technical education, adult education, economic development, resource development and administration.
 “The State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia is pleased to present Lanier Technical College with the Perdue Award for the 2014 TCSG Technical College of the Year,” Yarbrough said. “We congratulate President Ray Perren and his faculty and staff for their excellent record of high educational achievement and strong commitment to student success in the classroom and on the job. We’re proud of the outstanding work of each of the 23 TCSG colleges, but the record shows that Lanier Technical College has clearly earned our respect and commendation as this year’s top college.”
Perren accepted the award for his college.
“On behalf of the faculty, staff, students and all of the supporters of Lanier Technical College, I want to thank the TCSG State Board for this great honor,” he said. “It’s a testament to the tremendous work that the people of our college put forth every day to ensure that students learn the skills they need to succeed in Georgia’s workforce.”
The award benchmarks include enrollment growth; graduation rate; student job-placement and graduate-licensure rates; adult education and GED success rates; corporate contract training; college fundraising; and the result of an administrative audit.
Lanier Technical College serves Banks, Barrow, Dawson, Forsyth, Hall, Jackson and Lumpkin counties.
The TCSG college of the year award was created in 2011 and named in honor of former governor Sonny Perdue, who was a strong supporter of the TCSG colleges and their mission to develop the state’s workforce through technical and adult education.