The Public Service Institute

Division of Business

Santa Ana College

The Public Service Institute (PSI) was established in 1980 to provide local public and private organizations college credit business seminars designed to improve the job performance and satisfaction of their employees. 

All the seminars are developed and scheduled at the request of those public agencies and organizations whose employees participate in the program.  The seminars are either 8 or 16 hours in duration and carry a credit of .2 or .4 units respectively. 

The seminars offered by PSI cover a wide range of job related skills: Management and Supervision, Communications, Interpersonal Skills, Personal and Professional Growth, Computer Applications, and Cultural Awareness and Diversity.

Since all seminars are job related, the employees from the participating organizations are given release time from their jobs to attend.  Scheduling is usually in 4 hour increments and all are offered during daytime working hours (8 to 5 p.m.) and during the normal work week (Mondays through Fridays).  Participants register for the seminars by using both the college’s telephone and on-line systems.

At the completion of each seminar, participants who satisfy the seminar requirements are given a certificate of completion.  Most of the participating agencies have entered into a billing arrangement with the college and many give their employees salary credit for successful completion of each seminar.

Each semester, 60 to 80 different seminars are offered; some in multiple sections.  This results in 100 to 130 seminars being offered each semester with approximately 2,500 participants attending and receiving credit.  All offerings are a result of a survey sent to the participating agencies and organizations each semester.

Many of our participating agencies and organizations host the seminars in which their employees are the bulk of the participants.  Satellite locations for the college serve as classrooms for those not held at hosted sites.  All computer-related classes are held at college locations to ensure operational control of the equipment, multimedia, and application programs.

Most of the seminars are taught by trained and qualified professionals who are adjunct to the college’s full-time staff.  Some of the seminars are taught by full-time faculty from many disciplines through the college.  The PSI (non-teaching) staff includes a Faculty Director, a Program Coordinator, and a part–time clerical assistant.

For the past 24 years, PSI has been a major training provider for the County of Orange and the City of Santa Ana along with many other public service and private agencies.  Many seminar participants have become full-time students at the college.  PSI has developed very close ties with many organizations throughout the community and has become an ambassador for the many programs and services offered by the college.